Fragments of Dreams
by Initial Brainfreeze
Summary: Ten years after her journey to the Underground, Sarah is pursuing her dreams as an intern in San Francisco. But her reality is shattered when a long-forgotten nemesis pays her an unexpected visit.
1. Reunion

**Fragments of Dreams**

**Chapter 1 - Reunion**

"No, that's not right at all!"

Sarah Williams scrubbed at her sketchbook with her eraser, slowing slightly to avoid knocking over her coffee. Realizing that she had spoken aloud, she glanced around and noticed that a few of the cafe's patrons had looked up from their newspapers to stare at the odd woman talking to herself in the corner. Sighing, she glanced at the cafe's clock, took a sip of her coffee, and snapped her sketchbook closed before quickly exiting her preferred North Beach cafe.

Sarah made her way through the overcast neighborhood, having already memorized the trip from the small Italian cafe to the nearest BART station. Although it had taken a fair amount of adjustment on her part, Sarah had come to love the rich diversity and relaxed attitude of San Francisco. She had moved to an apartment on the outskirts of the city only three months ago, but she already felt very much at home. After going to college to become an engineer, she had been offered an internship at an environmental technology engineering firm, and just couldn't turn down the amazing opportunity. The only downside? Her new job placed her over three thousand miles away from her family.

She couldn't say she missed Karen, her stepmother, but she did miss her father, and especially Toby. But for as many reservations she had had in coming out to California, her family had encouraged her to go live her dream. Lost in thought, Sarah swiped her ticket and boarded the train.

On the ride home, Sarah flipped open her sketchbook again and flipped through her doodles, pausing briefly at each one to remember where and when she had drawn them. Although she had given up acting long ago, she was grateful she had chosen a career in which she could use a margin of her pent-up creativity. But things had changed after that night nearly ten years ago. No longer was Sarah occupied with the fanciful or supernatural. And whether her journey through the Labyrinth was a dream or an overworked figment of her imagination, she had grown up that night. She chose engineering because it was stable, tangible, real. If her "adventure" that night was any indication, her imagination had been getting the best of her and had been tearing her away from reality: her parents, school, Toby. Things were different now.

'Now, I really am on the path to achieving my dreams,' Sarah thought as she smiled.

She flipped another page and came to the portrait she had been drawing that afternoon in the cafe. She had been attempting to represent the young businessman sitting along the opposite side of the room. Fairly normal, not particularly noticeable in a crowd; just another shirt and tie at one of the many high-rise buildings in the City by the Bay. Sarah studied the hastily drawn lines and frowned. It looked like him. Not just this picture, all of them. While someone else might not have noticed, Sarah saw something that reminded her of him in every one of her drawings. Perhaps it was the set of the jaw, the deep-set eyes, the lips pressed into a thin, hard line just as they had been when she...

Sarah slammed the book closed-with a bit more force than necessary-as if telling her mind to stop dwelling on such thoughts. 'It was a dream, nothing more.'

_"It's a crystal, nothing more. But if you turn it this way, and look into it..."_

"No!" Sarah said aloud unintentionally, pressing her palms to her temples and screwing her eyes shut. She quickly clapped a hand over her mouth and looked up. Just as she was about to explain to the concerned, middle aged woman sitting across from her that she was prone bad migraines, the train came to a halt.

It had started to drizzle on the walk home, but Sarah silently thanked the gods that it hadn't started raining heavily until the moment she walked up the stairs and into the doorway of her apartment. She immediately put on a pot of tea as she unwound her scarf and shrugged off her windbreaker. 'Definitely one of the downsides of living in the Bay Area,' she thought as she looked out her cramped apartment's window at the brewing storm in the distance. Pouring the hot water for her tea, Sarah thought absentmindedly of what to make for dinner and sighed. 'If I was back east, I wonder what we would be having for dinner...' Sarah smiled to herself and decided to give her folks a call tomorrow. She wanted to talk to Toby, but she figured that, taking the time difference into account, he was probably already in bed.

Letting her tea cool on the dingy white countertop of her kitchen, Sarah walked over to her messenger bag that she had left at the front door and pulled out her sketchbook. "You're starting to become a hazard to my health," she said aloud. She walked to the desk in her room, and waving the book absentmindedly in the air, opened the top drawer. But as she finished placing the sketchbook into the drawer and was about to push it closed, something crimson red caught her attention. Intrigued, she pushed aside the long-forgotten office supplies and drew out a small, worn, leather-encased book: _The Labyrinth_.

Sarah's breath caught. 'I could have sworn I put this in my keepsake box with my other old books...' She ignored her instinct to shove the little book back into the drawer in which she had found it, but curiosity got the better of her. For all the character improvements she had made, suppressing her curiosity had not been one of them. Flipping through the wrinkled pages, Sarah came to a dog-eared page with which she was all too familiar.

_"Give me the child."_

_"Sarah, beware. I have been generous up 'till now. I can be cruel."_

_"Generous! What have you done that's generous?"_

The retort tore through Sarah's heart as she dared to whisper her lines out loud, her memory of the Goblin King's cruel baritone voice playing like a record in-between, dredging up emotions of fear, pity...perhaps even regret.

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Sarah shouted, tossing the leather-bound book onto her bed. She stomped back into the kitchen very much like her fifteen-year-old self, grabbed her tea, and sank grudgingly into the couch. 'Grow up, Sarah. It was just a stupid dream.'

The tea calmed her down as she sat in silence, contemplating the streaks of rain on her now dark window. "Well, it was a very convincing dream," she compromised, then sank lower into her couch and closed her eyes. 'The Goblin King,' she smirked. 'I wonder what he was really like.' She thought back to her days of her regular recital of the book's lines and how she had always perceived him to be unyielding and cruel. Perhaps he just hadn't had anyone to confide in. After all, the book made no mention of a Goblin Queen, let alone any other human-like beings besides Hoggle the dwarf, and the goblins, if they could even be considered human-like. Perhaps he had just needed a friend.

"I wish we could have been friends, Goblin King." Her words were just a whisper against the pattering rain as it struck the windowpane. She finished draining her mug and set it on her knee. "Yeah, if he was _real_, Sarah," she snorted. If these conversations with herself were any indication, she was in desperate need of making some friends herself. Shaking her head, Sarah stood up, rinsed her mug, and placed it in the sink. But as she was about return to her task of looking for something to make for dinner, a sharp scraping noise made her jump.

She turned around slowly, her body following her head, as she looked hesitantly toward the sound. Even more shocking than the noise she had heard was the magnitude to which the storm outside had picked up. The wind was howling, causing the windowpane to rattle violently. 'Probably just a tree branch against the window,' she thought shakily, attempting to calm herself. A fine explanation in any such situation, except for the fact that there were no trees outside of her apartment.

Suddenly, the windowpane started to rattle with greater force, and Sarah screamed as the hinge snapped and the glass exploded inward into her living room. "Christ!" she shrieked as she dove behind the counter. Shaking, and checking to make sure she wasn't hurt, adrenaline pumped through her system as she leaned the back of her head against the cabinets under the sink. What she heard next made her freeze and, if her mind hadn't already been reeling, would have filled her very being with a sense of dread and impending doom.

"What's said is said."

She didn't move from her spot behind the counter, out of some desperate and foolish idea that she might be able to escape her apartment unnoticed.

"You know very well where he is."

'The hell?' Sarah knit her eyebrows together in confusion. She extended her neck at an excruciatingly slow pace, every fiber in her body on edge and prepared to fight for her life. Being careful not to make a sound, she peeked her head around the corner, and gasped as she caught in her gaze the ends of a flowing, midnight black cape, dark boots, and the beginnings of leather breeches working their way up to-. She broke from her thoughts, disgusted at herself for what she was about to think, but consequently slammed her head against the cabinet.

There was a slight pause, but the voice continued slowly. "Forget about the-"

Silence. 'Dammit Sarah, you're such an idiot!' she chastised herself. She screwed her eyes shut and hugged her knees close, awaiting her discovery. When had she become such a coward?

She heard the sound of a throat being cleared. "Are you insulting me? Show yourself and give me the child."

'Wait, he's not onto me? Doesn't he know that I didn't wish away a child? I didn't even-oh, shit.' Sarah felt as if her heart was about to beat its way out of her chest, and she was half surprised that it didn't give away her location. Would he just leave if she waited long enough? She had enough to process knowing that what she had assumed to be a dream for the last ten years was actually real; she didn't need to deal with the Goblin King himself in all his tight-clothed glitter glory! But one thing was certain: there was no easy way to weasel out out of this situation. It was step up, or be stepped on. Sarah tightened her fists, clenched her teeth, and spoke.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Another silence. Electricity seemed to fill the air. Was the Goblin King tense? If he was, his tone of voice hid it very well. "Did you not call upon my services? I am here to take the child you wished away." He attempted to maintain his composure. "Now show yourself."

'His _services_?' What was it about the way he said that that made it sound so...

"You will show yourself to me, or I will have no choice but to use force."

Sarah could tell his patience was thinning. She tried to stand, but her knees were trembling. 'Pull yourself together! He has no power over you, remember?' At least she'd still have the counter in-between them. With that thought Sarah stood, using the countertop for support, to face the Goblin King.

She sucked in a sharp breath as she took in the scene that lay before her. First, there was glass littering her living room floor, and the carpet under her window was soaked with the rain that was blowing into her room. But these details (and how she was going to receive more than just a lecture from the landlord), were nothing compared to the spectacle standing in the middle of her apartment.

She rose from the kitchen floor as gracefully as possible, gripping the edge of the countertop until her knuckles turned white, to support her weight on her trembling legs. She took a deep breath and raised her head to meet the eyes of her former (and possibly present) rival. Sarah's breath caught as her eyes met his. He looked exactly as she remembered him. Intense expression, wild blond hair (which had perhaps grown a bit more unruly), ice blue mismatched eyes, and in full Goblin King regalia, just as he had come to her ten years ago. His expression, however, she did not recognize. His at first hard features made swift transitions from smug surprise, to confusion, and finally to recognition as Sarah swept her long dark hair behind her shoulders. The transition was so fast, however, that when Sarah blinked, his cold mask had already been slipped back into place.

He opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated. "Sarah?" he almost whispered, clearly with less force than he had intended to use if his following expression of frustration was anything to judge by. "What is the meaning of this?"

She stared back at him blankly, mouth agape, attempting to absorb what he was saying while forming a decent comeback. It wasn't working.

He looked around as regally as he could in the cramped apartment. The off-topic thought ran through Sarah's mind that her home really didn't suit him at all. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, attempting not to sound foolish. Sarah noted that he kept his fists clenched at his sides.

This was her chance. "What am I... What am _I_ doing here? I _live_ here!"

"You..." he looked around, his suddenly intrigued expression turning into one of disgust as he glanced around at the shoddy apartment. "You _live_ here?"

"Isn't that what I just said? I'm sorry it's not up to your standards, your _majesty_."

He cleared his throat. "You wished a child away to me. I am here to take it." Realization suddenly dawned across his fair features. "Sarah, you..." He clenched his jaw. She stared back at him, confused by what he was getting at. "You have a..." He couldn't say it, but shock was spreading rapidly on his trained features.

Suddenly, Sarah understood, and looked at him like he was insane. "What? No, I don't have a child! I didn't wish anything or anyone away to you." She placed her hands on her hips. "I think _you_ should be the one explaining to _me_ what you are doing here. But you're free to go; you've done enough." She gestured to the glass and the wet carpet surrounding him.

Slight relief flooded his eyes, but his harsh features remained intact as he processed her response. "How dare you call me here and then dismiss me as such!" He began stalking toward her. Sarah backed up against the refrigerator, still determined to remain in control. But the closer he came, the more she lost her nerve. "You say you did not wish away a child, but if that is the truth," he gestured around the kitchen, "do you mind kindly explaining to me what I am doing here?"

Sarah's eyes met his, icy and unyielding, trying to maintain her composure. "I don't know, you tell me, Goblin King. I'm not the one with magical powers, here."

_"...And he had given her certain powers."_

"What did you wish for." It was not a question. He loomed over her, the air around him prickling with heat. His mismatched eyes bored into hers, and Sarah was quickly breaking down. She had to end this quickly.

"I didn't _wish_ for anything!" She cringed as her retort came out more whiney than commanding.

"Oh, indeed." He lowered his voice. "And I suppose that I am here simply because of sheer chance, and because I am incompetent at my duties? I can only respond when summoned, _Sarah_, and I guarantee you, intentional or not, you wished for my presence for one reason or another." He flashed his sharp teeth with a mischievous smirk.

'Stupid, stupid, _stupid_ Sarah! Why couldn't you have kept your mouth shut?' "I told you, I didn't wish for anything." He was so close that she could hear his heavy breathing. She drew in a shaky breath. "So unless you plan on repairing my window, I suggest you leave."

The Goblin King paused and controlled his features yet again. Sarah wondered what kinds of thoughts and emotions were swimming behind the mask he always wore. "I see," he smirked. "As you wish...precious." The loathing in his tone was audible. He backed up carefully, taking care to avoid the countertop behind him, as he stepped back into the circle of broken glass in Sarah's living room. Glaring at her, he raised a gloved hand to eye level, made a fist, and then gracefully flourished it through the air, as if he was producing one of his infamous crystals.

Nothing happened.

He coughed, and repeated the gesture. Nothing.

Sarah stared at him in silence, too entranced by his odd movements to comment. The Goblin King let out a sigh that quickly turned into a growl, making Sarah flinch. She looked at him for an answer, and indication of what he was attempting to do.

"It seems," he started through clenched teeth, "that I am unable to fulfill your request. I cannot return."

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Labyrinth or any of its characters. Labyrinth belongs to The Jim Henson Company and all applicable associates.


	2. Uncertainty

**Chapter 2 - Uncertainty**

"You...you what?" Sarah half-whispered, staring in shock at the odd man standing in her living room. She could almost see the anger radiating in waves off of his cloaked form.

"I said, _little girl_, that I am unable to fulfill your request." His tone was dripping with loathing and sarcasm as he folded his arms. He gestured toward her gracefully when she said nothing.

Sarah looked at him in disbelief and threw her arms up in the air, frustrated. "What do you want me to do about it? I didn't even believe you were _real_ until you came bursting through my apartment window ten minutes ago." Her voice was rapidly escalating in pitch, but she quickly controlled it. "In fact, I'm still not sure that what's happening right now is a dream or reality. _You're_ the Goblin King, _you_ figure it out." She crossed her arms smugly to match him.

It took a moment for Sarah to register what happened next. One moment he was standing in the middle of her apartment, seething, his cold eyes locked with hers. The next moment, she found herself pinned with her back against her refrigerator, fingers of strong hands digging sharply into her upper arms. "Ow!" she exclaimed as she instinctively tried to wriggle free of the Goblin King's death grip. He responded by shoving her against the fridge, attempting to meet her eyes. She wouldn't look up. "Let _go_!" He ignored her.

"What did you wish for?" he pushed, jaw clenched.

If he hadn't sounded so angry, Sarah could have sworn she heard a hint of desperation in the words he spoke. There was no way she was going to tell him how she had accidentally wished to be friends, and as an afterthought no less. How was she supposed to have known that her fanciful thoughts would _summon_ the man (if that was indeed what he was)? "I already told you, I didn't wish for anything." 'On purpose,' she finished in her head.

"That's not possible!" he yelled. His composure was slipping. If he squeezed her arms any tighter, Sarah was afraid he might break them. "You foolish girl! Do you realize what your flippant whims have resulted in? Do you have _any_ idea of the consequences and havoc that your petty, insignificant wishes could wreak?"

"Get _off_ of me!" Sarah struggled, ignoring his comments. "How was I supposed to know that it would bring you here in all of your..." She shrugged her shoulders, attempting to gesture at him, looking him up and down critically.

He flashed a wicked grin as his eyes lit with realization. "The little witch finally admits to her crimes, does she?" His grip loosened when her slip-up had proved his assumptions correct.

"I didn't mean it, alright?" As soon as the words left her mouth, Sarah clamped her jaw shut, wishing that she could reorder time. She cursed herself for letting her temper get the best of her.

The devious smirk spread wider across the Goblin King's face as he removed his hands from her arms. "You haven't changed at all."

That stung. "Well, neither have_ you_," Sarah countered as she took advantage of his dropped guard to thrust a knee upward. He sacrificed some of his usual gracefulness to hastily step out of her reach.

_"You're no match for me, Sarah."_

"Now, try to be a grownup and cooperate for _once_, Sarah." His expression was once again neutral.

How dare he speak to her in such a condescending tone! "Well I certainly didn't wish for _this_!" She gestured around the room, and then at him. "What are you going to do, 'suspend me headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench?'"

Fury marred his features as the wind entering the room from the broken window seemed to swirl around his daunting figure. "Of all the insufferable..." The rest of the sentence came out as a low growl, causing Sarah to shudder slightly. The Goblin King held his clenched fists at his sides, but stood tall. In the back of her mind, Sarah was impressed by how commanding he could seem in a situation that was completely out of his control.

Sarah had been slowly gaining her confidence after he had let go of her, and before he could continue, she interrupted. "Oh _please_, Jareth."

He froze, mouth agape, looking, for once, graceless. She hadn't meant to use his real name. In fact, she had forgotten until very recently that she even knew it. Whatever the reason, she instantly regretted it as he closed the distance between them with two swift strides and raised his gloved hand. As he opened his fist, she realized that he meant to strike her, and flinched, prepared for the worst. But his hand never made contact with her soft cheek.

Sarah opened one of her eyes, still braced for impact. She looked warily up at him, and realized that his hand had stopped in midair. She watched in silence as he formed a fist again and drew it roughly to his side. He pivoted around so his back faced her, and strode not toward her window, but toward the door of her apartment.

"What...what do you think you're doing?" Sarah breathed shakily when she realized he was not going to harm her.

He placed his hand on the doorknob, twisted it roughly, and shot her a scathing glance from over his shoulder. "Granting your wish, precious," he spat.

And with that, the Goblin King was gone, the sound of the slammed door ringing in her ears and the glass-littered floor the only indicators that he had ever been in Sarah's apartment in the first place. "Ouch," Sarah winced, looking down at her arms and at the bright red marks that had been left there. And that. She sighed, and it wasn't until she tried to walk that she realized that her legs were still shaking. 'Pull yourself together, Sarah!' She took a deep breath and turned toward the mess that had been left in her living room.

Sweeping up the glass, Sarah tried to process everything that had just happened. 'I suppose he did have every right to be angry, but how could he not have known what I wished for?' She bit her lip. 'Not that it matters; he's probably back in his castle terrorizing those horrid little goblins by now.' She dumped the broken glass into the trash can and took out the vacuum cleaner to take care of the rest. She would worry in the morning about how to explain this to her landlord. Sarah smiled slightly at the thought of the high and mighty Goblin King stooping so low as to use her front door. She knew how he so enjoyed dramatic exits and entrances. But then a thought crossed her mind that broke her smirk. What if he really couldn't get back?

'Don't be ridiculous. It was probably just a proximity thing, or his way of getting me to spill what I had wished for.' She nodded to herself and boarded up her broken window to the best of her ability. Stepping back to observe her handiwork, she let out a long sigh. 'Well, so much for dinner.'

She looked around, made sure her door was locked tightly (not that it did her much good, judging by tonight's events), and walked into her bedroom. It wasn't until she saw the small red book that she had thrown on her bed that she started to release her pent-up emotions from the evening. She let out an exasperated moan and grabbed the troublesome novel. She stalked out of her room, and at a loss of what else to do, she hurled _The Labyrinth_ at her front door, her actions reminding her of how the Goblin King himself threw his infuriating crystals. It hit the door with a 'thump' and fell to the floor harmlessly. "You have no idea how much trouble you've caused me!" she yelled at the little crimson book foolishly.

Sarah ran back into her room and collapsed onto her bed, hot, angry tears stinging her eyes.

But in fact, it was Sarah Williams who had no idea how much trouble had been and was yet to be caused.

A blaring alarm pulled Sarah out of her dream state as she jerked up in bed. 'Oh, right. Work.'

She hit the alarm and dragged her legs out of her sheets, rubbing her heavy eyelids. "Oww," Sarah complained aloud. She looked down at her arms, where the beginnings of dark bruises were beginning to appear. 'Oh great. This is going to go over really well at work.' She worked her way slowly through her morning routine, putting on a pot of coffee, taking a shower, and gathering up her things for the office. She chose to wear a blazer over a white blouse and a skirt, in order to hide the evidence of her very real encounter with the King of Goblins the night prior. As she went to open the door, Sarah stepped on something. She made a face at the red book she had thrown at the door last night and kicked it aside.

The commute to her office in the heart of San Francisco went by quickly as always, her mind still reeling with the events of last night. 'Oh, the landlord's going to _kill_ me!' Sarah thought drearily, pressing her palms against her eyelids. 'Well sir, you see, a metaphysical Goblin King broke into my room last night after I accidentally wished that we could be friends, and he didn't exactly bother to clean up the mess. No sir, I don't believe he has insurance. No, I don't have his phone number. That's not it sir, I mean, I don't believe he _owns_ one.' Sarah groaned just thinking about the potential scenarios. At that moment, she made up her mind that if she ever saw that glittery bastard again he would get what he had coming to him.

Sarah walked into her office building two minutes early. 'At least I made it to work on time,' she thought optimistically.

"Sarah!" a voice called as soon as she exited the elevator onto her employer's floor. She knew that enthusiastic tenor anywhere.

"Morning, Nathan," she replied as cheerily as she could manage. Nathan Kim was another intern for the company at which she was employed. He had excellent engineering potential, but at times he could be a bit overenthusiastic, particularly around her. He had short-cropped black hair, dark eyes, and a tanned complexion. His build was trim, and his clothes were always neatly pressed. Sarah had assumed for a while now that Nathan had a thing for her, but she just couldn't bear the thought of dating one of her coworkers, especially at a job she was so serious about and dedicated to.

"Jeez Sarah, what happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Did she really look that bad? "Oh well thanks, Nathan," she replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm as she dropped her bag on her desk. If he had only known how right he was. "I had a rough night."

A guilty look passed across his face. "I was just kidding, Sar. And you can always call me Nate, you know. You don't have to be so formal." He laughed uneasily. When she didn't respond he continued. "So what happened? You okay?"

Sarah sighed. "I'm fine. I just don't want to talk about it right now." It wasn't as if he'd believe her even if she did.

Her coworker looked concerned. "Alright Sar, no problem. Just know I'm here if you ever want to talk." He forced a smile and Sarah nodded, partially acknowledging his offer.

Before she could thank him, Stacie, the office manager, stepped in. "Meeting in ten, Williams. You too, Kim." The pair of them nodded and began to gather their things, Sarah all the while avoiding her coworker's eyes.

The meeting went well; Sarah presented her latest designs and ideas for the company, and Nathan his. The board seemed pleased, but Sarah's mind was elsewhere. Had she really seen desperation in his eyes when he found that he was unable to teleport back to the Underground? He _could_ go back, couldn't he? Of course he could. He ruled the place, didn't he? She remembered the fierce look on his face when he had approached her. A look of anger, frustration, and possibly...panic? No, that couldn't-

"Miss Williams?"

Sarah was shaken from her thoughts. "Y-yes?" Apparently someone had been talking to her. 'Pay attention, you idiot!'

"What are your opinions of Mr. Kim's designs?"

"Oh, I...um..." 'Don't make a fool of yourself, Sarah!' "They're very, uh, well-planned." Nathan shot her a glance, concern etched on his normally smooth face. The board director continued to describe their next project and areas to work on for next week's presentation, and Sarah took thorough notes to make up for her prior lack of attention.

"You feeling all right, Sar?" Nathan asked on his way out of the board room after they had been dismissed.

She cleared her throat. "Yeah, Nate. Sorry." She smiled weakly and hoped that her use of his nickname would be enough to shake him of his pressing interest. It seemed to work as he beamed and patted her on the shoulder. "Maybe it's best if you took a break. But...before you do, I was wondering if you...I mean..." he started wringing his hands in front of him, an uncharacteristically nervous gesture for the young and confident engineer. "What I mean to ask is..." he was now mumbling, and Sarah couldn't make out what he was saying.

"That's a good idea, Nate," she interrupted to break up the awkward situation. "I'll just be in the rec room. I didn't eat anything last night; I think I just need some food to keep me going." She smiled and rose from her chair, questioning Nathan's nervous glance. "Are _you_ alright?" she asked jokingly.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine Sar, of course. I'll just let you go." His eyebrows came together in an expression that Sarah had never seen him wear. "I'll uh, see you later then." With that, he quickly sidestepped her and walked out the door and back to his desk, his eyes intently focused on the floor in front of him.

'What's his problem?' Sarah wondered. But she didn't dwell on it, and instead gathered her things and walked to the rec room to grab a bite to eat.

The room was empty when she stepped inside. It wasn't quite lunch time, and she technically wasn't supposed to be taking a break right now. But with everything that was on her mind, she just couldn't summon the willpower to sit at her desk next to Nathan and draw up concepts for their next project. So here she was, debating whether to eat a croissant or a bagel. She chose the croissant and stood awkwardly in the empty room, the television in the corner the only noise that served to break up the sound of her chewing.

She stared blankly at the screen. Just another news report about one of the many crime issues in San Francisco. The subtitle read, "Disturbed Man Found in Golden Gate Park." 'Like this is anything new for San Francisco?' Sarah thought cynically to herself as she smiled. But it was the female announcer's next words that made Sarah's stomach flip.

"At approximately 9:30 this morning, a man wandering Golden Gate Park was reported to be harassing nearby children, and was found by the police less than an hour later. At first assumed to pose no threat, the man fought against the officers' attempts to question him, and was reported by a bystander to have physically attacked two officers before being arrested and taken downtown. The man, whose name remains unknown, is currently being questioned by the police for his conduct."

Sarah's eyes widened as blurred pictures flashed on the screen of a man in boots, tights, and a poet's shirt, with long, tousled blond hair, grabbing the collar of a San Francisco police officer.

The reporter continued on with her opinions of the oddly dressed man, but Sarah didn't make out the rest of the report. Her eyes open wide with horror, her mind raced as it replayed the news report and that image over and over again. "Oh God...what have I done?"


	3. Negotiations

**Chapter 3 - Negotiations**

"I have to go," Sarah said hastily to her coworker as she threw her belongings into her messenger bag. "Can you tell Stacie that I have to leave early?" Without waiting for a response, Sarah shouldered her bag and jotted down the address of the downtown police station she had looked up.

It took Nathan a moment to mentally catch up with her and drop what he was doing. "Whoa, Sarah! What's wrong?" He began to stand up as she crumpled the paper with the address on it and shoved it in her pocket. She held up a hand to stop him.

"There's been um...a family emergency. I need to take the rest of the day off."

Perplexity swimming in his dark eyes, Nathan remained half-standing as he responded to the sudden news. "Uh...yeah, sure Sarah. I mean, I'm sure Stacie will understand; you haven't missed a day of work in three months." He continued when she nodded. "What happened? Is there anything I can do?" His tone escalated into a dull panic.

"No Nathan, thank you, I just need to go right now." She shot him an apologetic glance, hoping he would understand and not take it personally.

He just nodded an affirmative, sitting back down in his chair. "Do what you need to do, Sarah."

"Thanks Nathan, I owe you." With that, she walked through the office door as fast as she could without breaking into a jog and impatiently jammed her finger into the elevator button.

'Is the bus line _always_ this slow?' Sarah thought to herself as the MUNI bus she had been riding for the last twenty minutes finally came to a halt outside the central police station. She hopped off the bus as soon as the doors opened and jogged over to the crosswalk as gracefully as possible in a skirt, but stopped before she crossed the street to take a deep breath. 'Just go in there, handle the situation calmly, and leave.' Sarah focused on the pixelated red hand blinking across the busy street as if insulting her. 'Yeah Sarah, just_ handle_ the situation. Except you have no clue what the "situation" is or how to even begin to deal with it.' She had left work and had come here out of instinct, and didn't even know what she would find when she stepped through those doors. What if Jareth had magically teleported back to the Underground in the time it took her to get here? '...Or what if he didn't?' her mind countered. There was only one way to find out.

Sarah inhaled shakily as she walked up to the doors of the station, unsuccessfully attempting to calm herself. 'I'm only trying to save my sworn enemy-who _happens_ to be an ethereal, socially disturbed king-from a prison sentence in a world he isn't even a part of, let alone one he fully understands.' Her hand paused on the door. 'I'm a madwoman.'

When Sarah walked inside, she saw nothing that served even as an indication of the mania she had been expecting. Everything seemed relatively...calm. The receptionist was sitting at her desk taking a phone call, and a pair of officers were in the corner discussing their plans for the evening after the ends of their shifts.

"Excuse me," Sarah asked quietly, footsteps echoing on the linoleum as she stepped up to the receptionist. She waited for the woman to place the phone on the receiver before continuing. "I was wondering if you-"

"GET YOUR BLOODY HANDS OFF ME, YOU BASTARD!"

"Never mind!" Sarah finished as she pivoted to face the familiar voice echoing from the hallway behind her. 'Note to self: _never_ intentionally piss off the Goblin King.' She ignored the receptionist calling after her as she ran toward sounds of fists meeting flesh and other such unpleasantries, and turned the corner just in time to see the Goblin King being dealt a blow to the gut by a cop while another pinned his arms behind his back.

"STOP!" Sarah screamed, perhaps in an overheated reaction to what she had just witnessed.

All three men froze and stared up at her, uncertain of how to react to the intruding business woman who now seemed to command the very air with her expression alone.

Jareth had stopped struggling, and was staring at her wide-eyed. "Sarah?" he asked incredulously. She could see blood on his face, but he began struggling again before Sarah could get a good look at his injuries.

The officer who was not restraining Jareth turned the rest of his body to face Sarah and asked with relief, "You know him?"

Sarah nodded, not trusting herself to speak again out of fear that she would overreact. 'Play it cool,' she thought. 'Get in, get out. I can't afford to give them any reason to doubt what I say.' She shot Jareth a glance that had "let me handle this" written all over it, and he seemed to understand. She gave him a look of reassurance when he allowed himself-albeit grudgingly-to be escorted into the waiting cell a few feet away. The officer motioned for her to follow him into an adjacent room that housed a desk and two chairs.

Sarah sat down, maintaining her cool façade as she brushed her dark hair behind her ears.

"Your friend has caused us quite a bit of trouble, Miss..." he sat down across from her, slightly shaken.

"Williams."

"Miss Williams." He sighed and continued. "Are you aware of what he did?"

Sarah nodded again. "I saw it on the news and came rushing over here as soon as possible." 'No need to lie so far.'

He folded his hands on the table. "I hope you understand, but before I can disclose any more information to you, I need to know your relation to him."

'And, I spoke too soon.' She cleared her throat, knowing that he would ask this. "Well sir, that's why I came here in such a rush. You see, um, Jar...Jared is my cousin. He's from out of town, and he came to San Francisco to see a specialist. He's been emotionally disturbed since he was a child." She paused to judge the cop's reaction. He seemed convinced so far. Just to be sure, Sarah folded her hands on her lap and knitted her eyebrows in an expression of false concern. "He found his way out of my apartment last night without having taken his medication, and sir, I was just so worried that I..." Were fake tears necessary? No, not yet at least.

The officer looked back at her with tired eyes and nodded, concern still etched on his face. "Miss Williams, I understand your dilemma, but there's protocol to be considered. He did assault two of our officers. He's a threat to public safety."

"Sir, please, I know Jared wouldn't really harm anyone." Did she? "The officers that the media claimed he attacked...were any of them seriously injured?"

"Well...well not seriously Miss Williams, no, but you must understand that it's on principle that we must-"

"And the accusation of harassing children?"

"Well, it was reported that he...that he was frightening children in the park by performing tricks...we don't know the details as of yet, but..."

"I swear to you sir, it won't happen again. It would destroy him to go to prison." She paused. "It would destroy _me_. I'll make sure he goes to see a doctor; I can even show you all of his paperwork." Here came the tears. The paperwork claim was a bit excessive, but Sarah was betting that he wouldn't inquire further about it. Desperate times called for desperate measures, which were in this case calling upon her long-buried acting skills. Rivals or not, she couldn't leave the Goblin King in this environment, sapped of magic and helpless as he seemed.

The officer looked at his hands in silence for what seemed like an eternity before he spoke. "I believe I understand your situation. I'll see what I can do. Wait here, please." He slid out his chair with a scraping noise and left the room, leaving Sarah to sit and pray that her story was believable enough.

What seemed like hours later, the officer returned, with the man who had been restraining Jareth. "Miss Williams," the first officer began, "we have spoken with our captain and we have agreed that you may take," he paused, "Jared, home." Relief flooded Sarah as she relaxed a bit in her chair. "_But_," he started again, watching the woman before him stiffen again, "we need you to fill out some paperwork and sign some things on his behalf, and we also need fingerprints from both you and your cousin."

Sarah thought over the terms of their agreement. It seemed fair enough, as well as necessary if it was what would get them both out of here scot-free. She stood to face them. "Officers, I cannot thank you enough for your support." She gave them her best smile, with just a hint of falsified flirtation.

"It's no problem at all, Miss Williams," the second officer fumbled, blushing slightly.

She gestured for them to lead the way out of the room, and she was taken back to a table in the lobby to fill out paperwork and give fingerprints.

Just as she finished filling out the records to the best of her ability (labeling Jareth as "Jared King"; how embarrassing), Sarah sighed in relief as the same two officers brought the humbled (but still seething) Goblin King into the lobby and unlocked the handcuffs that held his gloved hands behind his back. He gave the officer who had punched him a nasty glare, shook his hands free and held them close to his chest, rubbing his sore wrists. Sarah noticed that he refused to make eye contact with her.

One of the officers finally spoke as he received the paperwork from her and glanced it over. "This will do, Miss Williams. We just need to get some fingerprints from this one." He pointed a thumb at Jareth.

For the first time, Jareth looked up and spoke. "Excuse me?" He still sounded surprisingly pompous for all he had been through in the past twenty-four hours.

Sarah glared at him, but then realized what the officer's request meant. Jareth would have to take off his gloves.

She stayed calm, and gave him a look of reassurance. "It's alright _Jared_, just do what the nice men ask and we can go home." She noted his reaction of disgust at her demeaning words, but she could tell he was quickly catching on. He loosened the glove on his right hand as the second officer brought a fingerprint set to the table behind him.

Sarah stared at the loosened glove intently. Why was she this worked up? Surely there was nothing particularly _different_ about Jareth's hands, was there? But he did always wear gloves, and then there was his reaction...

But her eyes were torn away from the scene as he turned her back to her, completing the fingerprint sets with his hands well out of sight.

'Dammit!' she thought. And then she cursed herself again for being so upset at what she had been deprived of seeing. When Jareth turned around again to face her, his leather gloves were fit snugly over his slender hands.

"You're free to go, Miss Williams, Mr. ...King." The officers exchanged suspicious glances.

"Again, I cannot thank you enough, officers," Sarah falsely beamed as Jareth slowly crossed the room. 'If looks could kill...' she thought as she inwardly shivered.

"No need to thank us. Just do us the favor of never having to come back here under such...unfortunate circumstances." The second officer looked Jareth up and down distrustfully.

Sarah nodded sharply and grabbed Jareth's forearm (much to his surprise if she was to judge by the way he flinched), led him out the front doors of the police station, and onto the streets of San Francisco.


	4. Accommodations

**Chapter 4 - Accommodations**

Once the police station doors had closed behind them, Sarah glanced over at the Goblin King who was staring straight ahead, a neutral expression on his bruised and bloody face. He still wore his otherworldly getup, and she knew that even in San Francisco, taking public transportation with him looking like that would be a nightmare. They would have to take a cab.

She sighed and took out her phone while motioning for him to follow her over to a nearby bench. When she had finished calling the cab, she looked worriedly over at Jareth again. At the moment, that's who he seemed to be-Jareth. Not the Goblin King. Either his sense of pride had been broken by his experiences, or he was just too exhausted to keep up the act. Watching him sitting there with a set jaw, trapped in an unfamiliar place, the evidence of having been beaten into submission written all over his face, Sarah almost felt sorry for him. That is, until she moved to put her phone away and felt the massive bruise on her arm. Her falter made Jareth glance over at her suspiciously, but he made no move to ask her what was wrong.

The cab pulled up and they both got in, Jareth following Sarah's lead. She gave the driver directions to her apartment, but the remainder of the ride was uncomfortably silent. Jareth hadn't spoken to her (save her name) since last night, and Sarah wasn't only attempting to figure out a game plan for this unpredictable and highly unstable situation, but she honestly didn't have any idea what to say to the man sitting next to her. 'How do you make small talk with a king?' she thought, biting her lower lip. 'Even if he is a king of goblins...doesn't that still make him royalty?'

"Why did you do that?" his clipped accent unexpectedly broke through Sarah's thoughts, making her jump a bit.

"Huh?" she responded more unintelligently than she would have liked. "What do you mean?" She glanced over and noticed that he was looking sideways at her through his veil of disheveled blond hair.

He breathed exasperatedly as he made a gesture with his hands that Sarah took to mean "everything that just happened."

"Well what did you expect me to do? Leave you there?" she asked in disbelief, breaking eye contact.

When he didn't respond, she wondered what he really thought of her. She didn't think twice about helping him, even if their past had been rocky to say the least, and their relationship was strained at best. From the way he spoke, he _had_ expected her to leave him there, and that hurt. She hadn't been _that_ cruel during their previous encounters, had she?

_"Your eyes can be so cruel."_

She shook her head and noticed Jareth was still looking at her, likely for some indication that she hadn't saved him from prison simply to enact revenge in some other form of punishment. She cleared her throat. "Don't worry about it. It's no problem."

He shifted a bit in his seat, obviously not accustomed to such cramped spaces, and said flatly, "Isn't it?"

She rolled her eyes. Did he always have to take everything so literally? "You know, a simple thank you would suffice."

He pursed his lips and drew his upswept eyebrows together as if deep in thought. He placed his elbows on his knees and folded his hands together in the air. "I...apologize for my behavior last night. My actions were irrational."

Sarah's eyes widened as she listened to what he said. Had the Goblin King just _apologized_? Whether he meant it or not, Sarah knew that it either had taken an incredible amount of self-control and humility on his part, or that there was a lot more to the man sitting next to her than met the eye. She wasn't immediately sure how to respond. "Hey, 'what's said is said,' right?" She forced a smile and tried to manage a laugh, but it came out a weak "ha."

He turned and glared at her in disbelief that she had turned his apology into a joke, but quickly tamed his features and leaned into the back of his seat, appearing to be more relaxed.

The taxi finally pulled up to the front of Sarah's apartment complex, and after paying the cab driver an arm and a leg, Sarah winced at her loss and led the way up the stairs and through the front door of her apartment where their dramatic encounter had ensued less than twenty-four hours ago.

It was almost surreal, Sarah thought, to see the high and mighty Goblin King standing yet again in the middle of her shabby apartment. What was he still_ doing_ here? Suddenly the entire situation caught up with Sarah, and the time to think was over. Now that they were out of earshot of the entire city of San Francisco, the interrogation began.

"What the _hell_ did you think you were doing?" Sarah tossed her keys onto the table next to the entrance and glared at the Goblin King, who was again snapped out of his thoughts and turned to face his accuser. "Do you have _any_ idea what would have happened to you if I hadn't lied to those cops?" Before he could answer, she continued and threw her arms up in the air. "No, you probably don't. Well, I'll have you know that-"

"I thought I made it clear that your actions weren't necessary." While she had been talking he had stepped closer to her, his voice nearly as commanding as it had been last night. The Goblin King had returned.

"Weren't-" Sarah gaped. "You would be locked up who_ knows_ where if I hadn't come and gotten you! I felt..."

"Responsible?" he finished scathingly as Sarah winced, wishing she hadn't started the sentence. "I'd imagine so, considering how you've trapped me here with your..." he waved his hand wildly in the air, searching for the right words, "secret conspiracies!"

Sarah put her suddenly heavy bag down on the table with her keys and turned again to face him. She opened her mouth to speak, but clicked her jaw shut as she took in his appearance. He really did look terrible. His unruly golden hair was matted with blood against his forehead, and he had a swollen lip. Even his clothes were dirty and torn in places. If he hadn't looked so angry, the sight of the normally clean-cut Goblin King would have been humorous to Sarah. When she noticed that he was waiting for a response, she spoke up. "How do you even know you're here because of me?" The attempt was futile, but she was out of options.

She watched him close his eyes slowly and take a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. "Sarah," he started, barely hiding the annoyance in his tone, "I don't believe you understand." He looked at her again, ice blue eyes burning through to her core. "I am not able to venture Aboveground unless summoned."

'Oh. Oops.'

"So I know that you wished for me," he continued. "The question is not _whether_ you wished for me, but what you wished_ for_." His toothy smirk looked strange with his swollen lip, but it did nothing to hide the inherent smugness of the Goblin King.

Sarah wrung her now sweaty hands, trying to think of a way out of this situation. "W-whether or not I wished for you...if you hate it so much here, why don't you just leave?"

He stepped closer, still smiling, his confidence returning as he gained the upper hand. "Do you think I haven't tried?" He waved a hand in front of him again as if to produce a crystal, but nothing appeared. "Oh Sarah, how little you understand. I cannot return to the Underground until I have fulfilled the summoner's wish. Even I have contracts."

"But..."

"No 'buts,' Sarah. Those are the rules, and I must abide by them if I wish to keep my position as king. Although," he mumbled, his tone changing into one of loathing, "that may already be forfeit if I am forced to stay here longer than anticipated." He leaned in close as Sarah backed against the door in silence. "Now tell me, Sarah. What did you wish for?"

Why was she trembling again? For not using any magic, he sure knew how to make her feel things by proximity alone that she wasn't sure she wanted to feel. "I um..." 'Talk, Sarah!' She turned her head to the side as he put a palm against the door next to her ear. She heard him suck in a sharp breath at her movement, and her breathing escalated.

"You might also find it interesting to know," he began again, his voice softer, "that when summoned to the Aboveground, I am only granted the magic I need in order to fulfill the request. Considering that I seem to have none whatsoever, it must mean only one thing. And do you know what that is?" Lowering his voice to a whisper, he looked at her, but she kept her eyes glued to the tense, gloved hand that was only inches from her face. "It means you wished for _me_."

The way he said the last word made her want to melt, and she wasn't sure her knees would support her for very much longer if he continued. Suddenly, she came to her senses and moved to push him off of her. She placed both of her hands firmly on his chest, unintentionally touching the smooth, porcelain skin between the folds of his silk shirt. "I did _not_!" She tried to ignore the sensation, as well as his sharp intake of breath at her contact, and applied more pressure, using the door behind her as extra leverage.

Suddenly, Jareth jerked back, clutching his chest and bending at the waist as if in pain.

"Whoa, what's wrong?" Sarah blurted, momentarily filing away the conversation they had been having.

He stood, his face set in a grimace of pain. "It's nothing." He ran a hand through his hair, trying to shake it off.

"Don't give me that," Sarah replied. "What happened?"

"Well I don't know Sarah, I was only assaulted for a few hours, give or take," he fought with sarcasm through clenched teeth. "I'll be fine, just give me-"

Before he could finish, Sarah was already next to him, inspecting his injuries. Setting aside the problem at hand, her older sister instincts had taken over and there was no stopping her. She gently moved the folds of his shirt aside to find a large purple and blue welt that spread across his chest, and hints of other injuries branching out over his body where clothes covered his skin. "This is awful!" she said sympathetically.

"I'm fine. I just need to rest for a minute." He started to back away, but went rigid when she started running her hands over his body to inspect his various cuts and bruises. "Sarah, wait..." She lifted his arm tenderly and pushed back his sleeve to reveal a few minor cuts on his otherwise flawless ivory skin. At first he seemed to relax, but before Sarah had finished inspecting one of his arms, he abruptly jerked away from her.

Sarah stared at him, perplexed by his behavior. "Look, you need medical attention. I had no idea your injuries were this bad." She bit her lip. "I have a first aid kit with some antibiotic cream and bandages; I'll be right back."

"I'm _fine_," Jareth yelled as she strode down the hallway to the bathroom, ignoring him.

Seconds later she came back with a first aid kit and took out the antibiotic cream she had mentioned. She unscrewed the cap and held it out in front of him as he backed toward the wall. "What is with you?" she asked, offended that he refused her help.

Jareth ran his hand through his hair again, brushing it out of his face. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm afraid that won't do me any good." He smiled lightly at the frown on her face. "I'm fae."

Sarah paused. What did he mean it wouldn't work? "Wait, what?"

"Your medicine will have little effect on me. I heal faster than most humans." His expression longed for her to understand and drop the subject. He was obviously too weary to discuss whatever it was that had her so confused, but she had to know.

She cocked her head. "But I thought your magic didn't work."

He dramatically sighed and placed a hand over his face. "That doesn't change what I am." He frustratedly motioned at his entire body with his hands. "Can we please save this discussion for later? I promise you, I'll be all right; I just need to rest."

Sarah wet her lips and nodded slowly, still suspicious and curious about the information she had just been given. But what he had said reminded her of something else she had not considered: sleeping arrangements.

She looked down at her feet shyly. "Well, I guess we'd better deal with this one step at a time. Let's just sleep on it; we can talk about all of this in the morning. ...I'll be right back." She turned and walked toward her room, again leaving Jareth standing in the living room by himself.

She came out moments later with a few blankets and a pillow in her arms, and set them down on the couch. "Um..." she turned to look at Jareth, but he had his back facing her and seemed intently focused on whatever he was holding. When she cleared her throat, he finally turned around. In his hands was her copy of _The Labyrinth_.

"You still have this?" he asked with an equal amount of nostalgia and sarcasm. He waved the small book in the air.

Sarah didn't respond, but instead stomped over to him and swung at the book in an attempt to grab it. He evaded her by lifting it above his head and out of her reach. "Give it back!" she whined, knowing she probably sounded more like Jareth had remembered her as a teenager than the woman she was now, but she was too exhausted by the day's events to do anything about it. She jumped up again, but he stepped back and held his arm high, grinning at her reaction to his discovery.

"You obviously didn't want it, by the way it was tossed on the floor."

She let out a short growl. "It's important to me," she bit out.

"I see," he smiled. "And my magic, and by extension my kingdom, is important to _me_," he countered as he dangled the book above her head before moving it behind his back. "It's only _fair_, Sarah." His devilish grin returned.

He was obviously enjoying this, and Sarah wasn't about to give him the pleasure. She lowered her arms, backed away, and put her hands on her hips. "Fine, keep it, I don't care." She changed the subject before he could comment and motioned with her head toward the sofa. "You can sleep on the couch."

He looked from her to the couch and back in silence, his face blank once again. Probably figuring that they had argued enough already, he nodded affirmatively and watched as she shifted her weight between her two legs. "I'm going to bed," she finished awkwardly. 'Don't be rude, Sarah. Even if he is the man who stole your brother and nearly had you killed, he's still your guest.' She frowned. Who was she kidding? This entire situation was completely out of control. "Let me know if there's anything you need," she forced, and slowly turned around when she saw Jareth nod and resume reading. She began to walk toward her room, but paused and screwed her eyes shut at what she was about to say.

"By the way...Jareth?"

He looked up from the book with raised eyebrows, and she took it as a sign for her to continue. He'd find out sooner or later anyway, and there was no better time than the present.

"I wished...that we could be friends."

Without turning around to see his reaction or giving him time to verbally respond, Sarah strode into her bedroom and closed the door, knowing that sleep would not come easily that night.

Sarah awoke to the sound of running water and sat up in bed wide awake, the feeling rushing over her that she wasn't alone in her apartment. Oh, that's right, she _wasn't_. The previous day's events flooded through her mind, the comforting haze of sleep slipping away far too quickly. The Goblin King was in her apartment, and he was-

"Oh my God...the Goblin King is in my shower." Sarah froze, unsure of what action to take next. 'It's just a shower. Who doesn't take showers? There's nothing weird about...' Sarah let out a groan and rubbed her eyes with her fists, attempting futilely to erase the picture her mind had produced. She got up, stretched, and decided that it was probably best to just continue with her morning routine as always. It was Saturday, but sleep last night had been fleeting, as Sarah could not get her mind off the fact that the Goblin King had been sleeping just a room away on her living room couch.

Grudgingly shrugging off the last bit of sleep, Sarah shuffled out of her bedroom, only to be met by the one thing that could possibly make a Saturday morning better: the smell of eggs and coffee. Intrigued, she walked into the kitchen and on the stove saw a pan of scrambled eggs and a full, freshly brewed pot of coffee. 'He can cook?' she thought. She inched over to the stove to inspect his work. 'It smells so _good_!' She took a fork out of the drawer, realizing that she was starved from skipping dinner again last night. However, before she could satisfy her senses, she paused and rolled her eyes, placing the fork down on the counter. As much as she would have liked to, there was no way she could trust breakfast made by the man who had drugged her ten years ago. But just as she was about to fish through the cabinet for some cereal, she heard someone's throat clear behind her.

She jumped and turned toward the sound. When had the water shut off? When had the bathroom door opened? But as she took in the scene before her, all thoughts of when and how left her mind. There stood Jareth, dripping wet, and in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. He wrung out his damp hair, which was now limp and matted against his forehead, and looked expectantly at Sarah as if nothing was out of the ordinary and he was standing there fully clothed. Did he have any idea of the effect he had on her?

Judging by the humored expression on his face, Sarah guessed that if he hadn't known, he certainly did now. "Is my cooking not to your liking?" he asked, unconvincingly hiding the laughter in his voice.

Flustered, Sarah stood there staring, unable to tear her eyes away from his figure. Her insides melted as she unwillingly raked his lithe form. She paused as she noticed the silver pendant he always wore pressing lightly against his chest, where the bruises he bore yesterday had already faded to a dull yellow. He was trim, to be sure, but undoubtedly a greater strength lay behind the harmless looking exterior. She snapped out of her thoughts and spoke. "Not to my...never mind that! Why aren't you wearing anything?"

He grinned widely now and made no attempt to hide the fact that he was humored by her frustration. "I wouldn't say _that_, precious. Although if you wished it of me...I suppose I could make arrangements..." he lowered his voice as Sarah watched his hand trail from his hair to the towel on his waist.

Once she realized what he was about to do, she panicked. "No!" Shielding her eyes and spinning around to face the stove again, Sarah felt her face flush. 'Oh my _God_ he's not wearing gloves,' she thought with a twisted feeling of glee, and wished so badly she could turn back around and see what his hands looked like. But she fumed as soon as she heard stifled laughter from behind her, and spun around to find Jareth still very much covered by the towel he wore. Somehow he seemed less intimidating without the added height of his boots and his flowing royal clothing, but there was no doubt in her mind that the man standing before her was still capable of the trickery and chaos he had caused her ten years ago. Sarah held up a hand in front of her as some form of protection, and watched as the Goblin King raised his eyebrows.

"I was only joking." His tone became serious as he studied Sarah and looked for some kind of nonverbal response before continuing. "I'm afraid that I have nothing decent to wear." He motioned to himself and fidgeted slightly, awaiting her response.

He really _was_ relatively helpless. She hadn't exactly had time to think about what the Goblin King would _wear_ with everything else that had been happening. Sarah lowered her hand, looked away, and coughed, not immediately trusting her voice. "Apparently." She wet her lips. "Hold on, I might have something that you can put on." She strode forward, desperate to get out of his relentless glare. Jareth sidestepped as she inched around his partially nude figure. She nearly faltered as she glanced up again, but made it into her room seconds later, breathing heavily.

'Jesus, what is wrong with me?' Sarah brushed her hair out of her face as she dug through her closet for some of her old boyfriend's clothes that he had left behind when they had broken up. Karen had shipped them all the way to California with her other things, likely by accident, and she hadn't found the time to get rid of them in the three months she had lived here. She sighed when she pulled out an oxford button up shirt and a pair of men's jeans. She checked the tag inside the pants for the size and frowned. 'These will have to do.'

Having calmed herself slightly, Sarah exited her room, only to slimly avoid crashing into Jareth's bare chest. "Stop _doing_ that!" she yelled, jumping back, flustered by their too-close encounter. When she looked up at him, he was frowning slightly, probably trying to figure out why she had reacted so violently.

"And what exactly would that be?" he asked dismissively as he took the clothes from her and began to inspect them.

"How you just..." she trailed off and motioned erratically with her arms.

"I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea about what you're referring to." He continued to calmly inspect the dark jeans Sarah had given him, eyeing them suspiciously.

Sarah let out a low growl and wanted to kick herself when she saw Jareth snigger at her reaction. "Just put some clothes on," she waved at him.

He looked up at her, and his mismatched eyes met hers. "In a bit of a rush, are we?" He flashed his teeth in the smirk that Sarah had already grown to despise. But as she was about to respond, she noticed that beneath his upswept eyebrows, Jareth still wore the silvery makeup that he donned regularly with his Goblin King getup.

"Oh nice, so you had time to put on your makeup but didn't have the modesty to get dressed before exiting the bathroom?" she blurted without thinking. She knew immediately that she had said something wrong by the look on his face, as it was contorting into an expression that could only be described as a cross between confusion and anger.

His face went blank as he tried to understand. "What?"

What had she gotten herself into? 'You're such an idiot, Sarah! You couldn't have just left it alone, could you? You never can!' She looked at him nervously, and figured that he had probably noticed that she was internally arguing with herself about what to say next. She couldn't find the right words, so she motioned with her index finger to her eyes, hoping he would understand.

He stared at her in confusion for a moment before comprehension began to dawn in his eyes. In what Sarah found to be a relatively innocent gesture, he touched a pale finger to the top of a closed eyelid and looked at her with the other eye as if to say, "This?" After a second, Jareth removed it and held up his clean finger to Sarah. "This isn't makeup." He looked at her, humored by her assumption.

She immediately felt her heart sink into her stomach, realizing her mistake. "Oh..." She bit her lower lip, trying to find a way out of yet another awkward situation. "So...do people in the Underground usually uh...tattoo their faces?" She tried to laugh it off, but his deep stare was unnerving, as if he could see right past her.

He gave her a pained smile, as if he knew she wasn't going to like what he told her. "No, these are very much..." he paused, searching for the right word. "...non-artificial." He shifted awkwardly. "I can see that we have much to discuss." Before she could respond, he held up the clothes she had given him and backed into the bathroom. As he was closing the door, he paused, and cracked it open again. "Oh, and Sarah." He stared at what she presumed to be her blank face, and reverted back to his devious, self-assured smirk. "I assure you, the eggs are quite safe."

As the door closed, Sarah let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. There was obviously a lot about the Goblin King that she didn't understand, and his changes in attitude were probably the least of her worries. But during the course of their conversation, something had changed about Jareth; his hard exterior had seemed to fade ever so slightly, though only for a moment. Sarah huffed in frustration as she stomped over to the kitchen and inspected the eggs that Jareth had cooked. If he didn't have magic, what could he have done to them, right? She picked up the fork she had placed on the counter and took a cautious bite.

Sarah almost moaned in pleasure as the scrambled eggs melted in her mouth. 'Where did this man learn how to cook?' At this point, she didn't care if the eggs were drugged or not-she was starving. She grabbed a plate from the cabinet, scooped some of the pan's contents onto it, grabbed some ketchup, poured a cup of coffee, and sat down at the table.

Moments later, as she was vigorously shaking the ketchup bottle, Sarah heard the bathroom door open. She watched in silence as Jareth rounded the corner and stepped into view, and almost choked.

Looking as regal as possible, chin held high, Jareth indeed wore the clothes that Sarah had provided him with, but the jeans were nearly falling off of him, and the sleeves of the dress shirt were at least a couple of inches too short for his long, slender arms. And there stood the Goblin King, who to the extent of Sarah's knowledge had never worn anything but tights, standing with the same air of haughtiness that followed him everywhere. She silently cursed when she noticed that he was again wearing his ever-present gloves, but it didn't do much to dampen her amused spirits.

He glared at Sarah when she laughed at him, clearly not at all as comfortable as he seemed to be in his new attire.

"I guess your body type is more different from Joe's than I thought," she managed, still giggling.

He looked at her, puzzled not only by her reaction to his new wardrobe, but also by the unfamiliar name she had mentioned. "I fail to find the humor in this. And who is 'Joe'?" He now stood with his hands on his hips, much as he had ten years ago, causing Sarah to laugh even harder when he moved to adjust the waist of the jeans that were slung low on his waist.

She took several deep breaths before answering, her eyes still creased with laughter. "Joe was my old boyfriend." She waved her hand in front of her. "Don't worry about it; I washed them. It was a while ago, when I lived back east."

Jareth nodded slowly, suddenly seeming even more uncomfortable upon learning this new information. "I see." To Sarah's relief, he didn't breach the topic further. She had dredged up enough old memories for a lifetime over the past couple of days, and her memories of her ex-boyfriend were not ones she was particularly fond or proud of. She quickly changed the subject.

"We can see about buying you some better-fitting clothes later." She saw him give a short nod and then returned to her breakfast, too hungry to ask or answer any more questions. But as she poured ketchup over her eggs, she heard a strangled gasp from the other side of the room and jerked up to meet a disgusted Goblin King.

"What are you doing?" he asked, appalled, glaring at the ketchup bottle in Sarah's hand.

She glanced down, confused. "I'm putting ketchup on my eggs. ...Is that a problem?" She continued, determined to eat _something_ before she got distracted again.

He walked over to the table to get a closer look at what Sarah was eating. She shifted uncomfortably as his eyes drifted over her plate. "I've never seen anyone do that before." He sounded more fascinated than nosy, but when he realized that Sarah felt uncomfortable, he took a seat at the table across from her and waited for her to finish eating.

'Is it him who's making this awkward or is it just me?' Sarah wondered as she took another bite of her eggs. She figured it would be best to make small talk to stall the more pressing issues at hand. "So where does a king learn how to cook?"

Jareth looked up, surprised at her question, and smiled slightly. "The truth is, I'm only well suited for cooking eggs." He continued when Sarah looked at him expectantly. "They're ridiculously easy to come by where I'm from."

"Ah, all of the..."

"Yes, the chickens. I'm afraid my kingdom has a nasty poultry overpopulation problem." He smiled nostalgically, but Sarah could hear the strain in his voice. She could tell it was hard for him to talk about personal matters concerning his kingdom.

Another thought dawned on her. "What will happen to...I mean, who will..."

"While I'm absent, you mean?"

She nodded shyly.

Jareth sighed and leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. "There are those in position who will maintain control over my kingdom while I am away, but...I'm afraid it cannot be upheld for long periods of time without my presence. The Labyrinth has been in a weakened state since..." he trailed off, closing his eyes and realizing that he had probably said too much.

"Since what?" Sarah inquired, her childhood fascination of the workings of the Underground rising to the surface.

He shook his head, ruffling his golden mane of hair. "Never mind."

"But-"

"I said never mind." His tone was suddenly harsh, and Sarah snapped her mouth shut as quickly as she had opened it. "Forget I said anything." He seemed to be studying the grooves of the wooden table, the leather of his gloves taught as he gripped the armrest of his chair.

Sarah stopped eating. "Hey, are you-"

"Fine." His jaw remained clenched, and Sarah attempted to stay on light topics.

"It was um...nice of you to make breakfast." She nearly worded it as a question, but the Goblin King still did not look up from the table.

"I figured it was appropriate given your actions in my favor yesterday," he responded flatly.

Sarah assumed that by that he meant "hospitality," and nodded accordingly. She didn't want to give him too much gratitude by praising his cooking skills, so she kept her opinion about how wonderful the eggs tasted to herself.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Sarah finished her breakfast and got up from the table. "After I take my shower we can take a bus and go find you some clothes." She tapped her chin when he looked up. "I hope you don't mind shopping in clearance." Jareth shot her a puzzled look, but Sarah shook her head, realizing too late that the Goblin King probably didn't have the slightest idea about what clearance was, let alone a department store. "Um, I'll just go get ready, then." And with that she placed her dishes in the sink and began to prepare herself-more mentally than physically-for a day sure to be full of chaos and unpredictability.


	5. Misunderstandings

**Chapter 5 - Misunderstandings**

It was early enough that the mall wasn't too crowded. Most of the stores had just opened, and Sarah figured it would be best to have as little contact with people as possible, for Jareth's sake as well as hers. It wouldn't do her any good to run into someone she knew only to find herself unable to explain the mysterious blond man who accompanied her. As they walked down the mall, Sarah silently prayed that no one would recognize her. She heard the rustling of clothes and looked over to see Jareth tugging at the band she had used to pull his hair back into a loose ponytail.

"Don't play with it!" Sarah snapped under her breath. She was apparently a bit more on edge than she had previously thought.

"I look ridiculous!" he rasped between his teeth in his clipped accent.

Sarah looked him up and down, noticing his boots (she had no shoes that fit) and his flustered face. "Yeah, you do. But this way you blend in. Now just deal with it; we'll be out of here soon enough." She pulled at his sleeve and directed him toward the nearest department store.

As soon as they entered the door he brushed her off his arm. "I am quite capable of walking myself."

Sarah didn't respond, but instead walked toward the men's clearance section, frequently glancing behind her to make sure Jareth was in tow. They skimmed the racks until they found a few things in Jareth's size that he deemed acceptable: a pair of gray slacks, white and black button up shirts, and a blazer. There was no point in buying him a full wardrobe, since neither of them expected him to stay for very long. But if he was going to leave her apartment, he needed something that made him look better than someone who had just walked out of a renaissance fair. While he was trying on his clothes, Sarah also picked up a pair of dark jeans and meandered over to the undergarments, feeling her face heat as she realized she didn't know if Jareth wore boxers or briefs. 'If anything,' her mind added, but she quickly rejected the thought and hastily grabbed boxer briefs to compromise, as well as some socks that were in the clearance bin. After he was done, they headed over to the shoe department to find an alternative to his gaudy black boots.

"These are perfect," Sarah stated matter-of-factly as she held up a pair of black and white Chuck Taylors. She grinned at Jareth's repulsed face as she waved them in front of him.

"You have no taste when it comes to clothing," he replied, turning away from her to look at a pair of leather motorcycle boots.

"Oh _please_. They'd match the rest of what you picked well enough. This isn't the Underground, Jareth. I'd say that your best bet is to trust me until we can find a way to get your magic back."

He nearly snorted at her words and looked at her with disgust.

"Besides," she continued, his expression disconcerting her, "those are too expensive." She nodded at the boots he was holding.

But upon seeing his face change at her words from a cynical sneer to a defeated blank slate, Sarah rethought her actions. He just looked so lost, and guilt flooded her. 'I guess it is technically my fault that he's here, if what he says about granting wishes is true.' She bit her lip and glanced down at the floor. "Alright," she said quietly, taking the shoes from him. "Let's go."

Sarah inwardly groaned at the bill, and painfully swiped her credit card before noticing the way that the clerk was looking at Jareth. She was mesmerized, like she couldn't take her eyes off him, and it was only when Sarah cleared her throat that the young woman was snapped out of her trance.

As they exited the department store, Sarah let out a deep breath, silently thanking the gods that she hadn't run into anyone she knew. She motioned with her head for Jareth to follow her. But when they were about halfway to the exit, Sarah noticed that she didn't hear the heavy steps of Jareth's boots behind her anymore. Alarmed, Sarah stopped and spun around to find Jareth a few feet away, staring at a glass case near the food court. Confused, she walked over and cautiously maneuvered to glance at whatever it was he was looking it. It was an ice cream shop. Just as Sarah was about to clear her throat to get his attention, he spoke.

"What is this?" he asked in all seriousness. The tone of his question sounded more like that one would use to ask something of a loyal subject rather than an acquaintance.

The question threw Sarah for a loop. "Ice cream?"

Jareth turned to face her, puzzled.

"Don't tell me you've never had ice cream before," she almost laughed, but sobered as he shook his head.

"I've never seen it before."

He obviously wasn't joking, and Sarah found the fact that the Goblin King was inquiring about something as simple as ice cream to be quite humorous. "No way," she joked. "You haven't lived until you've had ice cream!" She smiled at Jareth's still serious expression. Before he could stop her, she stepped up to the counter to order. "Now, what flavor of ice cream would a Goblin King find acceptable?" she asked out loud to herself, sneaking him a mischievous glance. His eyes widened as he clenched his jaw, but he didn't speak. Sarah decided on mint chocolate chip for him, and cookies and cream for herself. She paid the cashier and handed Jareth his ice cream cone, interested to see how he would react.

She watched closely as Jareth held up his ice cream, eyeing it suspiciously. Sarah tasted hers first, in case he didn't understand. He glared at her with uncertainty, but slowly did the same, his eyes not leaving hers. Suddenly embarrassed, Sarah broke eye contact. "What do you think?"

He didn't answer right away, but knitted his eyebrows together as if searching for the correct description. "It is satisfactory," he finally said.

Sarah sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes. "Okay, your majesty. Is your curiosity satiated?" He responded with a glare, which she took to mean yes, and turned to continue walking toward the mall's exit.

He must have enjoyed the ice cream enough, Sarah figured, because he had finished it by the time they caught the bus to go back to her apartment. She had to admit, the Goblin King was being more tolerable than she would have thought him to be. Other than his lack of gratitude for her generosity, he hadn't put up much of an argument to anything she had suggested.

_"Isn't that generous?"_

Then again, he didn't have access to magic, so it could be the case that he had simply accepted that he was the one with the disadvantage. 'For once,' Sarah snorted. However, what was bothering her more than his lack of gratitude was the fact that he had yet to mention what she had revealed to him last night about her wish. She figured he was probably just waiting for the right opportunity to throw it back in her face and use it against her. Whatever the case, it would have to be brought up sooner or later if she wanted to save her sanity, let alone her credit card bill.

The bus came to a halt, and the two of them gathered their shopping bags and made their way up the stairs into Sarah's apartment. Once inside, they put down the bags on the small dining room table and Sarah sighed heavily as she took off her shoes. "I'd say that was a successful trip," Sarah mentioned in an attempt to break the silence.

"I am glad you think so," Jareth stated calmly as he studied her. "Now, I believe we have some subjects of importance to discuss."

Sarah flinched. She knew that she wouldn't be able to put off this conversation forever, but she hadn't expected him to bring it up so quickly after their return home. "Do we really have to-"

"Yes, we have to talk about this now," Jareth finished. He seemed to be more comfortable with being himself when he wasn't in an unfamiliar setting. "_You_ might not have anything of importance consuming your life, but I have a kingdom to run, and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't continue to distract me by pretending nothing is wrong with this situation." His calm demeanor began to crack, and it was then that Sarah realized how worked up he really was. His patience was thinning.

"Um, okay, let's just take this one step at a time," she said hastily, holding up her hands. "How exactly-"

"No, Sarah," he interrupted, voice low. "We cannot take this 'one step at a time.' The reason being, I do not know what the first step _is_." He clenched his gloved hands at his sides and was now visibly shaking. "You foolish girl," he growled, head down.

"Hey!" she retaliated. She had honestly thought they were on better terms than for him to revert to calling her demeaning names. "Just calm down, alright? We'll figure this out." But she could tell immediately by his expression that it wouldn't be that easy.

"Calm _down_?" He looked up to face her with burning eyes. He crossed the short distance between them until they were just inches apart and gripped her shoulders as he had done not two days ago, where Sarah's bruises were still fresh. "How can you _possibly_ expect me to be _friends_ with _you_? Of all people! I have _never_-"

He stopped when he realized that Sarah was no longer paying attention. She had screwed her eyes shut in pain from where his hands dug into her skin and choked back a sob. She had no idea his loathing for her went so deep that there wasn't even a chance of them being tolerant of each other. The truth was, neither of them had answers, and she had no idea where to begin. Cursing her stupidity and preparing for the worst, she felt him release his grip on her and take a step back. Without looking up to see his expression, Sarah tugged down the shoulder of her shirt, revealing the purplish red welts on her upper arm. "Well I very well can't expect you to when you do things like this!"

She looked up in time to catch the shock plastered across his face, but didn't pause. She pushed past him and stormed into her room, slammed the door behind her, and collapsed into sobs against the back of her door.

Several hours passed. Sarah heard nothing from outside her bedroom, and secretly hoped that Jareth had left and would somehow find his own way back to the Underground. He _was_ the Goblin King, after all. With or without magic, he could figure something out. She started to tear up again when she remembered what he had said to her. But the truth was, how _could_ she expect him to tolerate her? Ten years ago she had wished her brother away and then changed her mind, and she had gotten angry at the Goblin King when (as she now knew) he was really just doing his job. Then, she had defeated his labyrinth and hadn't even_ listened_ to him when he...

_"Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."_

Sarah froze, her eyes wide. Realization dawned. "Oh my God..." He couldn't have actually _meant_ that, could he? She had only been fifteen, much too young to understand the implications of his words. She had always seen the last words of their encounter as a last ditch effort on his part to distract her from saving her brother, but had there been more? Sarah suddenly recalled his words from their conversation earlier this morning. He had mentioned the Labyrinth being weak, but he hadn't stated the cause. Could it have had to do with her run through his kingdom a decade ago? The pieces began to fall into place, and Sarah wasn't sure if she could bring herself to accept where this was going.

A knock at her door distracted her from her thoughts. She jumped, but didn't answer, instead deciding to pull her knees toward her where she sat on her bed. Another knock, more forceful this time, but still she didn't answer. She knew she was acting childish, but she just couldn't bring herself to face him, not after what had happened a few hours ago, and not having made potential realizations so soon. She needed time to sort out her thoughts. Maybe then she could find a key to unlock the Goblin King's ability to return to the Underground. She shut her eyes, trying to pretend there was no one at her door, but a voice called out for her on the other side that she could not ignore.

"Sarah, please open the door." The voice sounded weary and pained.

She buried her head between her knees like she would when her dad and Karen would get in arguments with her. "Go away," she called weakly. She couldn't deal with this right now. Jareth was right; she really hadn't changed at all. At this thought, Sarah felt another tear fall down her cheek.

"I'm not going away. Open the door." It was more forceful now. For all his mysteries, that was one thing she had learned about Jareth. If she denied him something, he only became more forceful until he got whatever it was he wanted.

Sarah sniffled but didn't answer, realizing there was no way to deter him from entering. Her fears were realized when the doorknob turned and the door cracked open to reveal several strands of unruly blond hair. "I'm coming in."

When she didn't respond the door opened wider, and Sarah looked up from her knees, hair falling in her face, to see the Goblin King standing in her doorway. Hair again framed his face, which Sarah noted was drawn with concern. The emotion didn't suit him, she decided. "What do you want?" she sniffed.

He stiffened at her harsh words, but stepped forward. Sarah inched back against the wall, bringing her knees closer to her chest. He walked as far as her desk, but didn't come any closer. Sarah looked up and moved some of her hair out of her face. Jareth looked around as if he expected someone else to be in the room with them, but brought his gaze back to Sarah. "Are you all right?" he asked softly.

Sarah could tell it was unnatural for him to show concern for others and realized how hard this must be for him. She shrugged her shoulders, not trusting herself to speak. He inched forward, and when she made no move to stop him, he came to the edge of her bed, but still did not touch it. Sarah realized that he had come in to make amends of some sort, or that he at least wasn't looking for an argument. She looked up at him again, and almost didn't recognize the man she saw before her. He looked raw, as if the barriers that the Goblin King so frequently put up had been torn down and only the man Jareth remained. There was a pain in his eyes that Sarah knew was genuine, and this, in combination with the revelations she was coming to about the past, sent waves of guilt rushing over her.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, sniffed, and moved over on her bed. Seeing this, Jareth backed away, assuming he wasn't wanted. But Sarah shook her head and patted the bed beside her. However, this action, to Sarah's surprise, only caused him to back up further.

"Sarah, I-"

"Just sit down, before I change my mind." She would have smiled, but she was too emotionally exhausted to manage the effort. She watched Jareth shift awkwardly and set his hand down on her desk before carefully-and quite uncomfortably-sitting down on Sarah's bed beside her, watching her reaction closely. Sarah loosened her grip from her legs in hopes that he would become more comfortable as well, but he showed no signs of relaxing. She looked into his eyes and saw a pain that was nearly unbearable. She had to speak up. "I-"

"I'm sorry," he cut in before she could finish. He lowered his eyes to his lap and knit his eyebrows together. "My actions earlier were...unforgivable." He glanced up at her arm, but avoided her gaze and again lowered his head.

His apology took her by surprise. "It's alright," she half lied. She almost preferred the full-fledged Goblin King over this side of Jareth. She could see how uncomfortable he was, and it made her uneasy. "I'm the one who should be sorry. It's...it's my fault that you're here."

He looked up at her, and when he said nothing, Sarah knew that they both knew her words were truth. He hadn't done anything but react to the situation he had been placed in. "Although," she continued, "I didn't _know_ what would happen, and if I had...I probably would have kept my mouth shut." She forced her lips into a faint smile, then took a shaky breath. "But that doesn't change the way things turned out. And now, we have to deal with the consequences." She looked up at his blank face. "Um..."

"I understand all too well, Sarah." She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't. "I'm not sure exactly how to counteract the magic without any myself." He folded his gloved fingers together as he had yesterday in the cab. "In fact, I've never completed a request _without_ magic, so I'm...not sure how to go about it." He smiled sadly, still avoiding eye contact. "But telling me the details of your intentions at the time you made the wish I imagine would be as good a place to start as any." He looked over expectantly, but quickly moved to explain himself further when he saw Sarah's look of distress. "When you're ready."

Sarah watched from her position on the bed as Jareth rose slowly, being careful not to disturb his surroundings. He stood to face her, and gazed at her almost regretfully. He paused, and slowly bent over the bed, extending his arm. Sarah inhaled sharply, but did not turn away as Jareth carefully brushed her dark hair out of her face and behind her ear. A shiver ran down her body as she closed her eyes and felt the cool leather of his glove gently glide across her face. He didn't say a word, but as he was turning to leave, a thought struck Sarah. "Jareth?" she inquired suddenly.

He licked his lips and asked softly, "Yes?"

"Um..." She tucked the rest of her hair behind her other ear, staring intently at the denim fibers of her jeans, but looked up to meet his gaze. "I thought you only took away children. When you're summoned, I mean."

An emotion passed over his face that Sarah couldn't read, but his features soon set into the cold mask they usually wore. "That is correct. But why do you inquire about things you already know the answer to?"

Sarah didn't like where this was going. "But if that's true, then...why did you answer to me?"

Jareth's features froze, his glassy eyes looking past her. The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence for seconds before he stated simply, "I did not have a choice."

Didn't have a choice? Of course he didn't, but no one could just call on the Goblin King for anything they wanted. "But-"

"Is this your family?" Jareth asked in a lighter tone, blatantly changing the subject and picking up an antique picture frame off Sarah's desk. Whatever Sarah was beginning to discover, he obviously wanted it to remain buried. He held up the simple, metal frame that held a picture of Sarah's college graduation.

"Um, yeah, it is," she replied, going along with the change in topic. She wasn't going to press him for answers, especially when he hadn't questioned _her_ just minutes earlier.

He looked at the picture silently for a few seconds, then said, "Your brother looks...well."

His comment caught Sarah off guard. It seemed that there wasn't anything they talked about that wasn't touchy to at least one of them. "Yes, although he's a bit of a handful according to my stepmother." She paused, noticing Jareth's slight smile upon learning this information. "But he behaves well around me, so I'm not sure her claims hold much truth." She smiled, relaxing a bit at the lighter conversation.

"I see," was all he said, although she could tell by the restrain in his voice that he was amused. He looked at the photo for a moment longer and turned it around so Sarah could see it. "Who is this?"

Sarah watched as he pointed to the young man with dark hair who had his arm wrapped around Sarah's shoulder. "Oh." How did he manage to bring up every hurtful thing from her past in their conversations? "That's Joe." It wasn't his fault, Sarah decided. Besides, she had gotten over her ex-boyfriend long ago.

Just then, something happened to Jareth's demeanor that frightened Sarah, and the air around them suddenly seemed to grow cold. "You two seem rather _friendly_." The way he said the last word made Sarah shiver. What had him so worked up all of a sudden?

"Yeah, well, we were," she explained exasperatedly. She wasn't in the mood to go into the details of her previous relationship. "You could say we had a bit of a falling out."

Jareth gazed at her puzzled, obviously unfamiliar with the terminology.

"It didn't work out in the end."

He nodded, but didn't speak for a while, so she hoped he had dropped it. "What happened?"

No such luck. Was there no such thing as privacy or common courtesy in the Underground? Then again, there weren't a_ lot_ of things in the Underground. 'Including restriction orders,' she thought. She took a deep breath before looking up at her ceiling and saying softly, "He cheated on me."

Jareth's expression didn't change, as if he expected her to continue. "Pardon?"

Sarah put her face in her hands and audibly groaned. 'Don't start crying again, it's not worth it.' How plainly did she have to say it for him to understand? "He cheated on me, Jareth. As in, I caught him with another woman." She glanced up at his face as realization dawned on his angular features. She expected him to react like he had to everything else she had told him about her family, but his expression frightened her.

"What?" he asked, failing to mask his flaring temper. "How could he..." he glanced around the room, seemingly unsure of how to react to this information. "How could you be with someone who would do that to you?"

That was it. Sarah snapped. "Oh, so it's _my_ fault?" she leaped off the bed, her temper matching his. "Well I _apologize_ for my lack of good judgement, your _highness_." She mocked a curtsey, her sarcasm nearly sending Jareth over the edge.

"Sarah, wait, I didn't-"

"Oh, don't you _dare_ finish that sentence! I suppose you think I got what I had coming to me. Hell, maybe I did!" Her voice was hysterical as she threw her arms up in the air, her eyes betraying the promise she made to herself not to cry. "Why does it even matter? It's over, I don't care anymore. Anyway," she turned away, trying to hide the tears that insisted on rolling down her cheeks, "I wouldn't have thought you were the type to care."

"Of course it _matters_." Suddenly, a deep emotion seemed to coat the Goblin Kings voice, but Sarah couldn't bring herself to face him. "Sarah, the morals instilled in me during my upbringing will not allow me to simply accept such treatment toward women! My feelings for you are irrelevant."

Sarah paused at his words. What he had just said raised a whole slew of questions that were not at all pertinent to the situation, but she didn't have time to dwell on his words' implications. "Oh, but they'll allow you to trap girls in your maze and drug them until they're delusional and practically melting in your arms?" She wished for a split second that she had left out that last bit. "Because that sounds _so_ much more valiant to me, Jareth. Don't talk like you're any better than he was," she spat.

Something happened in that moment that Sarah could not describe. The anger boiling in the air became palpable, and she spun around when she heard a low, animalistic growling sound behind her. It was coming from Jareth-no, the Goblin King. 'Or worse,' Sarah thought. The picture frame in his hands snapped under his steel grip, and she watched as the glass on top of the photo shattered, but he didn't seem to notice. All of his attention was focused on the now shaking girl in the corner of her bedroom. In all her life experiences and her travels through the Labyrinth, she never remembered being this scared-scared for her very life. She backed against the wall by her bed, but gasped when she looked down at Jareth's hands. Even through the thick leather of his gloves, they were bleeding.

He seemed to notice her reaction, and followed her eyes to his hands, becoming solemn once he saw the blood. He dropped the broken picture frame and stepped back, glass scattering over her bedroom carpet.

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came. Finally she managed in a choked voice, "W-what is it?"

Jareth's eyes remained fixed on his still-gloved hands, and Sarah noticed that his arms were shaking. "It's nothing," he bit out, attempting to shake it off, but Sarah could tell something was terribly wrong. As he attempted to stop his hands from shaking, tremors shot up his body and his balance began to waver. "What..." he glanced down at the broken glass, then at the picture frame, and finally up at Sarah. For the first time, Jareth looked_ scared_. His eyes were wide, and sweat coated his brow as comprehension spread across his features. But before he could explain to Sarah what was happening, Jareth collapsed.


	6. Crisis

**Chapter 6 - Crisis**

Sarah screamed as she watched Jareth crumple to the floor of her bedroom. She stood there in shock, staring in horror at his seemingly lifeless body. An anguished moan ripped from his throat, and at this, Sarah threw all reservations out the window and dove to help him.

"Jareth, hey! Can you hear me? What's wrong?" She attempted to contain her emotions yet again as she grabbed his forearms in an attempt to pin him down to the floor. She was completely alone, and only had a basic first aid course as experience, which she was sure would be worthless in this situation considering that the Goblin King likely wasn't even _human_. "What do I do?" She directed the question at Jareth, but it was more than anything an instinctual cry for help, knowing he wouldn't hear her.

"Jareth, you have to tell me what's wrong." She struggled with her inner turmoil to stay as calm as possible. She tried to recall her actions during the times Toby had gotten hurt, but none of his injuries had ever been life-threatening. "Where are you hurt?"

Jareth lay on the floor of her bedroom, body completely rigid, eyes wide and unable to focus on Sarah's face as she looked over him. For a split second she saw his crazed eyes dart down to his hands, which lay seizing by his sides.

Sarah sharply inhaled and moved to remove his gloves so she could get a better look at his injuries. However, as soon as her fingertips brushed the blood-soaked leather, he jerked away from her and cried out in pain.

Well, at least he was still conscious. "You have to let me look at your hands." She moved to grab them again, but he resisted.

"Don't touch me," he rasped, struggling to draw in another breath. But only seconds after he spoke, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, body again going limp.

Frightened, Sarah took the opportunity to grab the hand that was closest to her and stripped off his leather glove. She nearly cried out at what she saw.

Jareth's pale white hand was cut across the palm where he had been gripping the picture frame, and was bleeding profusely. But what scared her more than the blood coating his hand were the blue veins extending from the gash up his wrist, which seemed to be making their way up his forearms. Even Sarah with her limited medical knowledge knew that these were signs of blood poisoning. Jareth's seizing had subsided for now, and Sarah jumped up to grab her phone. "I'm calling 911," she said shakily, nearly falling backwards as she tried to balance on her unsteady legs.

"No," Jareth bit out, momentarily regaining consciousness. "Your doctors can do nothing for me." He shut his eyes and groaned as the pain rushed over him again.

"What am I supposed to do?" she cried.

"There's nothing you-" an agonized snarl ended his sentence short.

"That's blood poisoning, Jareth!" She was hysterical now. "How did you get blood poisoning without realizing it?" she ordered, breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping through her system.

She watched as he groaned and looked down at his hand. He tried to force a smile, but instead his lips twisted into a grimace of pain. "Leave it to Sarah Williams to have..." he breathed heavily, brow now coated in beads of sweat, "...iron picture frames lying about." He coughed, in what any other situation Sarah would have expected to be a haughty laugh.

She looked down at the broken picture frame. It had been her grandmother's, and she did vaguely remember her father telling her it had been made of iron. "You're...allergic to iron?" she asked in disbelief.

This time Jareth really did laugh, albeit weakly. "You really do know _nothing_ about the fae, do you Sarah?" But his words quickly became a convoluted string of strained groans. Helpless, Sarah got on her knees next to him to better comprehend his speech. Every so softly, she heard him whisper, "It's no wonder you rejected me."

The way he said those words were so heart wrenching and filled with regret that it caught Sarah by surprise. The Goblin King was becoming delirious. She chose to ignore his comment for now as she felt his damp forehead. "God, you're burning up!" She scrambled to her feet and out of the room to get first aid supplies.

Moments later, Sarah reemerged into her room with a cold towel and bandages. Unsure of what else to do, she gently placed the towel on Jareth's forehead and turned her attention to his hands. When he didn't put up any resistance, she peeled the glove off of his other hand and examined the similar gash and blue markings along his wrist. She pushed up his sleeve and noticed that the vein-like features were inching up his arms. "How do I stop it?" she reiterated, hoping he would give her some indication of how to slow the poison.

He seemed to be trying to control his breathing, but his efforts proved futile, and his condition was deteriorating by the minute. "You can't." He tilted his head back and drew in a sharp breath, nearly choking.

"There has to be a way to counteract it!" She could not simply bring herself to accept that there was nothing she could do for the man lying helpless on her floor.

He gave her a pained smirk and snorted. "Magic, possibly," he said through gritted teeth, then looked toward the ceiling and sighed. "There are some things even you can't fix, Sarah. ...What a fitting end."

"Whoa!" Sarah was shocked by his words and attempted again to make eye contact. To his surprise, she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look at her. "You are _not_ leaving me, Goblin King." For a moment she saw regret flood his eyes, but the moment didn't last as he rolled his eyes away. "Wait..." she started, letting go of him. "I have an idea."

Jareth looked at her confusedly, but couldn't focus on what she was doing. Purposefully taking in a deep breath, Sarah looked directly at Jareth and said clearly, "I wish the Goblin King was able to use magic."

She waited in silence for something to happen. She honestly didn't know what to expect. Perhaps something involving glitter. But the longer she sat there beside her fallen companion, the more his condition seemed to deteriorate, and Sarah was at a complete loss of what to do next.

"Why isn't it working?" she ordered frustratedly, perhaps to Jareth, perhaps to whatever unseen entity controlled the flow of magic between their two worlds. But as she looked at Jareth, who seemed as if he was attempting to tell her something, his blue eyes rolled to the back of his head and his entire body went limp.

"Jareth!" she screamed. "Wake up, we can still figure this out! Don't go unconscious on me, come on..." she shook his shoulders vigorously, but to no avail. Sarah looked down and noticed that the poison had spread the full length of his arm and had likely made its way to his chest. "Please wake up!" she cried childishly. Why was this happening? What had she done to deserve this? What had _Jareth_ done? Utterly helpless and alone, Sarah lifted the head of her former enemy into her lap and shed a single tear.

"Dammit, Jareth! You come all this way and then do _this_ to me?" To make the entire situation worse, Sarah was overcome with guilt that the whole ordeal was her fault. 'I should have never picked up that dreadful book. I should have never called on the goblins in the first place. I should have never said...' "The right words," she finished aloud. She pounded a fit into the floor beside her. "Except the right words were the _wrong_ words! It doesn't make_ sense_!"

_"Things aren't always as they seem in this place."_

Before she could break down further, a warm feeling rushed over Sarah. Confused, she opened her blurred eyes, only to note with dismay that nothing had changed. But as she glanced around her room, a glimmer caught her eye. At first thinking it to be a reflection of the broken glass strewn across her carpet, Sarah did a double-take and realized that what she had noticed was actually a smooth, glistening crystal amongst the shards of iron and broken glass. "What..." she muttered aloud, placing Jareth's head down gently to get a better look. It was indeed a crystal, and one that looked very much like the ones she remembered Jareth producing. How could this possibly be here if he had no magic available to him? Not bothering to think about the reason for the crystal's appearance, Sarah reached over and took it in her hands.

Immediately she felt the same warmth she had experienced seconds earlier, though it seemed to be emanating from the orb itself. As she held it closer to her, it began exuding a faint whitish glow, growing brighter at her touch. Sarah held out the crystal to Jareth. "Is this magic? Can you use this?"

No response.

Sarah bit her lip and brought it closer to the unconscious man lying on her floor. The nearer she held the crystal to Jareth, the brighter it seemed to glow, until Sarah thought it might very well blind her. She shut her eyes and loosened her grip on the orb, but as she peeked to see what had happened, she was shocked at the sight before her.

The small crystal resting atop Jareth's still chest was-for lack of better terms-being _absorbed_ by him. Sarah gasped as she watched the scene unfold, and once the crystal was completely gone, she placed a hand on Jareth's chest where it had been and again felt the steady, though shallow, rise and fall of his lungs.

Sarah let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and propped herself up with her arms, stress and adrenaline flowing out of her. 'I have no idea what that was, but whatever it was, it seemed to work.' That was good enough for Sarah at this moment in time. She would inquire about explanations later, but for now, she was content with not having to deal with a man presumably being poisoned to death in her own bedroom. She lifted Jareth's sleeves again to check the progress of the poison, and to her relief, it had stopped progressing, and even seemed to be regressing and working its way back down his arms. "Thank God," she sighed.

Although his vital signs seemed stable, Jareth showed no signs of consciousness. Drumming her fingers against the floor, Sarah decided it was best to let him rest until he woke up, and to bandage his injuries and watch his fever just in case. She tried lifting him, but even with a slender frame, he was still too heavy for her to carry. 'Well, I guess the couch isn't an option,' she thought as she looked to her bed. Making up her mind, Sarah moved the unconscious Goblin King as delicately as possible from his place on the floor into an upright position against her queen-size bed. And after some difficulty, she finally managed to hoist him onto her bed and lie him down, taking care to put an extra pillow under his head.

Sarah stepped back to observe him as she drew out an extra blanket from her closet. She had never seen Jareth asleep before. He looked decidedly peaceful, although equally exhausted by his recent trauma. She placed the blanket over him gently, then moved to bandage his hands.

After she was finished, Sarah turned over the towel on Jareth's forehead and took a step back. 'What do I do _now_?' she wondered to herself, exhaling. She decided to first clean up the mess that littered her carpet, then proceeded to make sure there were no other iron objects in her apartment. 'Better safe than sorry,' she thought to herself as she dumped the broken glass into her trash can. 'I guess I'll just sleep on the couch tonight...' She felt uncomfortable leaving Jareth alone after what had happened, but she didn't have another option unless she was going to sleep on the floor or-no, she wasn't even going to _think_ about it.

Sarah shook her head and moved to set up the couch for herself. As she walked over, she saw that Jareth had folded the blankets she had given him last night and had placed them on the end of the sofa. She wondered why she hadn't noticed this before. As she got closer, she also noticed that on top of the folded blankets was her small, leather-bound copy of _The Labyrinth_ that she had been so desperate to retrieve last night. 'I guess he held up his part of the bargain after all,' she mused, picking it up. Smiling, she opened the infuriating novel and skimmed a few pages. Memories from the Labyrinth came flooding back, and she smiled as she read stories of Labyrinthine creatures that reminded her so much of her old friends who she hadn't seen in years. But as she glanced up and down the pages, one particular passage caught Sarah's eye.

_"But what no one knew was that the Goblin King had fallen in love with the girl and had given her certain powers."_

Sarah's eyes froze, glued to the passage, reading it over and over until her head spun. 'That can't be right,' she thought adamantly. 'I don't remember that being there before!' But the truth was, she _had_ remembered reading that passage as a young girl, and it honestly had been one of her favorites. But she had enjoyed it more for the piece about "certain powers" than for the first half of the sentence. How could she have brushed over something so critical? But this was just a story; there were no parallels between herself and the girl in the story, save the words she spoke at the end. Besides, this book had been written well before her journey through the Labyrinth. 'And people don't throw snakes at people they love,' she added mentally. 'Or steal their baby brothers, _or_ send the Cleaners after them.' She nodded smugly to herself, and walked back to her room to return the small book to its designated drawer in her desk, along with the picture that had fallen from the broken frame.

Looking at the clock, Sarah realized it was getting late, and slowly got ready for bed, making sure to check in on the unconscious Jareth every few minutes. After she had finished cleaning up the mess that had been left on her bedroom floor, she turned her attention back to the man on her bed, who hadn't shown any signs of waking.

Feeling his forehead again, Sarah sighed defeatedly at the scorching sensation running through her palm. He still had a high fever. She brought some ice and another cold towel, and pulled up her desk chair to sit beside the bed. She noticed he was still breathing heavily, even though he seemed unaware of his surroundings. She brushed his damp hair out of his face and replaced the towel on his forehead. She inspected his arms again, and although the poison hadn't spread, it was receding more slowly than it had earlier. "Why do you keep so many secrets, Goblin King?" she whispered to herself as she moved another piece of hair out of his face.

Suddenly, Jareth's silvery eyelids fluttered, causing Sarah to jump back, but they did not open. Blood pumping furiously, Sarah was afraid that the sound of her heartbeat alone would wake him. She approached the bed again as he stirred and began to mumble something.

"Mm, Sarah..." He shifted, pain marking his features. But as Sarah leaned down to listen, he had already lapsed back into sleep.

She exhaled shakily, praying that he had been too incoherent to comprehend her whispers. When she returned to his side, she saw that his lips were turned down into a grimace of pain. "Jareth...?" she asked hesitantly. "Are you alright?"

She heard him groan as he shifted again in her bed. He looked so devastatingly uncomfortable, but Sarah had no idea how to respond. "Is there anything else I can do?" He slowly shook his head, his eyes still tightly closed. She nodded out of habit and sat back in her desk chair, debating with herself what action to take next.

She settled on sitting at her desk and working on new designs for her internship project-trivial as it seemed-in order to have something ready for tomorrow. She had almost completely forgotten about work with everything that had occurred over the past few days. She groaned as she thought about how miserable tomorrow would be, having to come up with and explanation for Nathan about what had happened Friday afternoon. Perhaps she would call in sick. After all, it wasn't as if she didn't have a valid reason to stay home. She had a sickly Goblin King under her care, and even if he hadn't been currently bedridden, she wouldn't have him traipsing around San Francisco alone; who knew how much trouble he could cause?

She continued sketching as the sun set outside her bedroom window, intermittently glancing over to her bed to make sure the Goblin King's condition had not worsened. It hadn't-but he still seemed to be in a horrible amount of pain. Sarah bit her lip, attempting to focus on the design she was working on, but she just couldn't get her ideas down on paper. Sighing heavily, she put her drawings away and took out her sketchbook that she had left forgotten in the top drawer of her desk since Thursday afternoon. Flipping it open to the picture she had drawn at the coffee shop just a few days prior, Sarah scoffed.

Now that she had the real thing to compare it to, Sarah decided that the portrait of the man at the coffee shop hadn't really resembled Jareth at all. There were similarities to be sure, but as she studied the Goblin King in his sleep, Sarah felt that describing any of her previous sketches as bearing significant likeness to him would be an insult to the real thing. Spinning in her desk chair and making sure the man lying on her bed was thoroughly unconscious, Sarah began to sketch out his figure.

It seemed like hours she sat there, toiling away with her pencil, never quite satisfied with her representation of him. True, he was not in the best state to be studied as a model given his situation, but Sarah decided that she probably wasn't going to get another opportunity. As she drew, Sarah observed that she had never quite paid attention to the way his strong jaw was set, the way his nose curved just so, the way his lips turned down ever so slightly. She found that she quite enjoyed drawing Jareth, particularly when he was not able to object or poke fun at her for doing so.

As she continued to draw at her desk, her small bedroom now lit only by her desk lamp, she observed that Jareth had grown quiet. She looked over and noticed that he was breathing steadily now, and had likely slipped into a deep, more comfortable sleep. Relieved, Sarah fought to stay awake to continue her portrait. She glanced over at the clock and groaned. 1:23 am. 'I'm never going to be able to get up for work tomorrow,' she sulked. Ignoring her instincts to move into the living room and get some sleep on her couch, Sarah continued to draw, figuring she had passed the point of no return when it came to getting her eight hours that night. 'I probably wouldn't be able to fall asleep anyway,' she resolved. And with her mind made up, Sarah sat at her desk, fighting sleep until, very slowly, her eyelids closed.

Sarah awoke to sunlight pouring onto her desk through her bedroom window. Squinting her eyes, the realization that she had fallen asleep at her desk flooded over her. She bolted upright in her desk chair, only to groan in pain from her stiff back. "Owww..."

She heard a soft chuckle behind her, causing her to spin around in her chair so fast that it made her dizzy. She had forgotten that she had a guest, if that was what you could call the Goblin King. "Good morning, Sarah."

He had managed to prop himself up against her bed's headboard, his arms lying limp at his sides. Although disheveled from sleep, he looked much better than he had yesterday, to Sarah's relief. A different feeling rushed over her as well, at the sight of Jareth sitting up in her bed, hair unkempt, the sunlight striking the strands of his blond hair and making them appear golden. But she wasn't about to admit it to herself, and quickly cleared her mind. Her mouth gaped, her mind still not fully functional after having just awoken. But as she saw Jareth smirk, she came to her senses and shook her head, moving her hands to her head to smooth her long dark hair which she was certain looked a downright mess. "Well, you're looking quite well," she said sarcastically. "How long have you been awake?"

Her comment only widened Jareth's grin. "It seems that Miss Williams isn't much of a morning person." He cocked his head to look at her from behind a mess of blond bangs, ignoring her question.

Just as she was about to reply with a smart aleck comment, Sarah suddenly remembered: it was Monday. "Shit, what time is it?" She fumbled around her desk and found her alarm clock under the mess of papers that had shifted during the night. 8:37 am. "Shit!" she yelled as she leaped up from her desk and began shoving the drawings from last night into her desk drawers. "I'm going to be _so_ late!" Work started at 9:00 sharp, and she still had to take the train into the city. She should have been out of the door at least a half hour ago.

"Now, why the concern?" came the voice from her bed, jolting Sarah and reminding her that it was indeed the Goblin King from her past who was lying in her bed.

She spun around to face him, flustered. "In case you haven't noticed, _Jareth_, I have a _job_. And I've already missed too much work by dealing with the police on Friday." She ignored his humored expression as she continued to frantically gather items from around the room and stuff them into her bag.

"And if you haven't noticed,_ Sarah_," he replied with just as heavy a dose of sarcasm, "I have a kingdom to run, and I've already taken off a century's worth of vacation time by being here." He paused as he measured her expression. "And judging by the way you fell asleep, I don't believe you're in any shape to go out."

Sarah paused, contemplating his words. She didn't have any desire to overanalyze the "century's worth" part, but she had to admit, Jareth was right. He had probably sacrificed more by staying here than she had, and she couldn't deny that she was absolutely exhausted. Also, if she stuck around while he was bedridden, perhaps she would be able to get some answers for questions that had been constantly nagging at her for the past few days. Maybe she would just call in sick.

Sarah studied Jareth's expression one last time before picking up her cell phone and dialing her office number. Nathan picked up.

"Hey Nathan, it's me, Sarah." She quickly altered her voice to give the impression she was feeling under the weather.

"Oh hey Sar, are you alright? I was going to call you this weekend, but-"

"Yeah, everything's fine Nathan, don't worry about it." She faked a cough. "But listen, can you tell Stacie I'm not going to make it into work today? I caught this awful bug the other day and I just can't seem to shake it."

The other line was silent for a while. "Um, yeah, I can do that. ...Are you sure you're okay?"

She felt slightly guilty for making him worry, as she knew the concern in his voice was sincere. "Yeah Nate, I'm sure, I just need another day to rest. I'll uh, work on some new designs and bring them in tomorrow, alright? Thanks for covering for me."

"No problem, Sar. Just let me know if there's anything I can do."

"Sure thing, thanks again." Sarah ended the phone call, relieved that it was over, then turned again to face Jareth. "All right Goblin King, you got what you wanted," she stated dully, tossing her cell phone onto her desk.

He shifted slightly, obviously still in some amount of discomfort, contrary to his upbeat attitude. "Would you _please_ stop calling me by that god-awful title?" he winced.

Sarah was taken aback. "What, 'Goblin King?'"

He sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm called that enough day to day, and I'd prefer not to hear it more than I need to. It's much too formal."

She had never heard Jareth give his honest opinion on something so simple, but assumed that it was important if he did. "Um...sure, no problem." She changed the subject, beginning to sound exasperated but attempting to lighten the atmosphere. "So what exactly was that last night, if you don't mind explaining? It kind of freaked me out."

Jareth looked toward his hands, then toward the floor, suddenly deep in thought. "I was poisoned by iron. And honestly..." he paused, confusion apparent on his face, "I'm not sure why I'm still here." He looked up at her with uncertainty in his eyes.

"Oh, well..." Sarah hesitated, not sure how to explain. "You kind of...went unconscious." She looked up, and Jareth nodded for her to continue. "And then, well, I wished that you would be able to use magic again, thinking it might make a difference."

His eyes widened, obviously surprised by this information. "How generous of you," he joked, but quickly retained his seriousness. "But it didn't."

Sarah nodded. "Right, but then, um..." She didn't exactly know how to describe this next part. "There was a crystal, kind of like the ones you, you know..." She made an exaggerated waving motion in the air. He nodded, and she continued. "And I tried to give it to you, but when I did, it started glowing and kind of...well, you kind of _absorbed_ it." Sarah fidgeted, knowing that she probably sounded completely insane, but the look on Jareth's face told her otherwise.

"I see," he replied simply, his mind obviously whirring with the information he had just received. He didn't say anything for quite some time, then spoke slowly, "I'm not certain _why_ that happened. I have some theories, but I'll have to think on them first before I can give you a definite answer."

Sarah looked dismayed at his comment, but he spoke again to ease her curiosity.

"I_ can_ tell you, however, that whatever you did last night, it probably saved my life." He looked up at her and she saw the sincerity in his eyes, and at that moment knew he was not exaggerating.

"Whoa, wait a minute..." she started, putting her hands up in the air and stepping away from the bed, but was interrupted before she could continue.

"Iron is _fatal_ to the fae, Sarah. While I likely would have been able to withstand such an incident if I was at my full power, even something as simple as iron from an old picture frame has the potential to seriously injure or even kill me when I am rendered without magic as in my current state." He looked down and pursed his lips. "It seems that I am in your debt."

He didn't particularly seem to like the idea, but Sarah could tell he was being honest with her. "It's really all right, don't worry about it," she said as lightly as possible, waving a hand in the air in front of her.

Jareth nodded, but his eyebrows were still drawn together in concern. "Unfortunately," he began, gesturing toward himself, "I am still in no position to function regularly. It will take me at least a couple more days to recover fully."

It surprised Sarah that he seemed so apologetic in his explanation. "That's completely understandable," she said in all seriousness, brushing another hand through her hair. "You can stay right where you are; I don't mind sleeping on the couch for now." She felt a bit guilty, as her words implied that Jareth would be kicked back into the living room after he recovered. But he simply nodded, and Sarah noticed that his eyes were closed tightly and his jaw tense. "Are you okay?" she asked hesitantly, inching over toward the bed.

He nodded sharply, but refused to open his eyes. She could tell he was still in a significant amount of pain.

"That's it, I'm going to give you some painkillers," Sarah said resolutely. "I don't care if you think they'll work or not, but you're an idiot if you think I'm going to sit around and watch you suffer like this." She reached over and placed a hand on his forehead, and to her surprise, he jerked back.

"What are you doing?" he exclaimed.

"I'm checking to see if you still have a fever!" she replied agitatedly. 'Why is he so antsy?' But then again, he had been unconscious most of last night, and probably didn't even remember that she had lifted him onto her bed or that she had taken his temperature multiple times. She pushed her hand against his brow forcefully, and quickly drew back. "Good, it looks like your fever has broken. I'll be right back. Do you want anything?"

He paused before answering, shocked by her actions. "Some water will be fine." She nodded in response, very much down to business. He grimaced. "Oh, and some hard liquor, if you have it."

Sarah reactively laughed and stared at him incredulously. She wouldn't take the Goblin King for one who drank. 'Then again...' she thought sarcastically to herself. "I'll see what I have," she replied, humored, and exited the room.

Minutes later, Sarah came back with her hands full of pill bottles, a glass of water, and a bottle of vodka. "I hope this is alright," she said, holding up the bottle while she set down everything else on the small table by her bed. "It's all I have."

"I'm sure it's fine," Jareth replied, smiling slightly.

"Now," Sarah started, "it's probably not good if you have painkillers and alcohol at the same time, so..."

"That will do." He nodded toward the bottle and the shot glass that Sarah had set down on the table. He looked at the bottle, then down at his hands, and smiled at her deviously.

Sarah stared back at him, confused. "What?" Why was he giving her that look?

"I'm afraid I am incapacitated." He shrugged, glancing at his hands, then at her.

Sarah caught on, and immediately backed up. "Ooooh, no. No way."

"Sarah," he crooned. "It's the least you can do for damaging my flawless hands. I'm quite upset, you know." His glare was relentless.

"The least I can-are you kidding me?" But she had to admit, if only to herself, that he had a point. Sarah looked down at his bandaged hands with less pity than she had before and folded her arms. "Alright, but _once_. Don't expect me to ever do this again."

Jareth beamed widely, basking in his victory. "Only should you like to, precious."

Sarah breathed exasperatedly, only adding to Jareth's twisted glee. She stomped over to where he lay on her bed, quickly poured a small glass of vodka, and held it up to him. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Jareth mock frowned. "In such a rush?" But when he looked up at her and saw her blush he flashed his sharp teeth again in a wicked grin.

Keeping her mouth firmly shut, Sarah held out the glass to the man before her, in disbelief that she was actually going through with this. But as she brought the edge of the glass to his mouth, Sarah felt her face heat until she was sure it was painfully obvious that her heart was beating at a significantly accelerated pace. She steadied her hand as he made eye contact with her, mismatched eyes flickering from her green eyes to the glass she held, all signs of a laughter wiped from Jareth's features. She delicately brought the edge to meet his soft lips, which opened ever so slightly to allow the transparent liquid to pass onto his tongue. She tilted the glass until there was nothing left, mesmerized by the movements of his throat as he swallowed. But just as that conflicting feeling returned that Sarah wasn't completely sure she detested, she pulled the glass away from Jareth's mouth, nearly slamming it down on the table beside him.

"Satisfied?" she snapped, somewhat short of breath, crossing her arms and pretending her face wasn't as red as a tomato.

He looked into her eyes, expression still serious, and licked his lips rather seductively before saying, "Not quite."

Sarah heart started to pound as she willed her feet to move away, but a part of her insisted on staying put. She trembled and looked on in horror as Jareth reached out with his bandaged hands to delicately lift both the bottle and the glass, and poured himself another drink. He lifted it to his lips, and threw it to the back of his mouth.

Sarah fumed with rage, balling her fists at her sides, part of her wanting to again seriously injure this man. "You lying cheat!" she growled through clenched teeth.

He smiled up at her as he put the glass down, still struggling somewhat with his grip. "Well I wasn't going to press my luck." He shot her a sideways glance as he settled back into the pillows on her bed and gave her a devious smile that seemed to say "don't deny that you enjoyed it."

The truth was, if even for a split second, Sarah _had_ enjoyed it, and that's what scared her more than the fact that he had coaxed her into hand-feeding him. She scoffed, pretending it hadn't fazed her. "Well if you have much more of that, you'll be unconscious for reasons other than blood loss." Although, she was less concerned for Jareth's alcohol consumption and more concerned for her bottle of pricey vodka that she usually saved for special occasions. 'Not that there have been many,' her mind added. She took the bottle and set it on her desk, just for good measure.

"Alcohol does not have quite the same effect on me as it does on you, but it serves its purpose," he said in all seriousness, closing his eyes and trying to relax.

"Well, suit yourself," Sarah huffed. "But next time, you can get up and get it for yourself." After all the worrying and fussing she had done over him! The man was sending her on an emotional roller coaster, and she wasn't certain that those emotions were quite as simple as she had originally assumed.

Over the course of the day, Sarah spent most of her time sketching out ideas that she had promised to bring into work tomorrow. They would have her head if she hadn't prepared something, and she didn't want to get too behind, especially as a new intern. Jareth drifted in and out of sleep, obviously still recuperating from last night's ordeal, but did manage to stay awake long enough to eat the turkey sandwiches Sarah had made for their lunch.

By the time evening fell, Sarah felt quite prepared for tomorrow's work day, and made certain to set her alarm. She walked into her room one last time to check in on Jareth, who seemed to be at peace, sleeping with his head propped up on a down pillow. Sarah leaned over the bed to make sure he was fast asleep, and then ever so gently pulled the blankets up and around him, making sure he was warm enough. But as she shifted with the intent of shutting off the light, she heard Jareth mumble something.

"Wait..."

Sarah froze in place, uncomfortably arched over between the edge of the bed and the man who slept between her blankets. His next words were so quiet that she had to lean over the bed even further to make them out.

He blindly searched for her hand that was closest to him. "Stay with me?"

When she saw what he was doing, she silently jerked her hand away and stood again at the side of the bed, her mind swimming with contradiction.

"You're so cruel, Sarah," he whispered, shifting to his side and squinting his eyes open to smile weakly.

"And you're still under the influence of alcohol and don't mean what you say," she concluded, backing away and flipping the light switch. "Goodnight, Jareth."

That night, Sarah fell into a restless sleep, her mind and heart a turbulent sea of emotion and conflict.

* * *

><p><em>AN:_

_No cliffhanger, be happy! But still unanswered questions, yes? *laughs evilly* I never leave author notes, I know. I don't like to detract from the flow of the story, but as I'm nearing the halfway point, I figured that now was as good a time as any._

_Firstly, I would like to thank all of you for your kind reviews! They encourage me to write my best and to get out new chapters as quickly as possible. I am flattered that so many people are enjoying this. I honestly wasn't sure it would go anywhere, especially being my first serious fanfic._

_My chapters are getting so lengthy...but I try not to split them up if I can help it. I am deep into writing the next couple of chapters, and as things are outlined now, I plan to make it somewhere in between 10-12 chapters total. But who knows? Either way, I definitely don't plan to stop writing Labyrinth fan fiction any time soon. :)_


	7. Invitations

**Chapter 7 - Invitations**

The tunnel from her past looked so familiar, yet something was amiss. Sarah looked around, then down at herself. She was dressed not in her classic poet shirt and jeans, but rather in her loose t-shirt and shorts that she usually wore to bed. As she looked up, she found herself face to face with the Goblin King, dressed in his royal attire, complete with boots and fitted breeches. Hoggle was nowhere to be seen.

"And you, Sarah. How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" he spoke softly, leaning in just close enough to make Sarah more uncomfortable than she already had been. She searched for the right words, but they didn't come. Her mouth was dry, and as much as she willed her vocal chords to respond, her mouth moved silently. Somehow his face looked different; harsher, more angular than she remembered, and there was something inexplicably animalistic about his eyes. He looked at her, confused, but continued without receiving an answer. "How about upping the stakes?"

Sarah stood there, unable to move or tear her eyes away from the man before her. She watched in horror as he generated a crystal and made it glide between his hands and over his fingers. He grinned wickedly, wound up like he was pitching in the major league, and hurled the orb directly at her without hesitation. Unable to even lift her arms for protection, she felt herself detach from her body as the crystal burst into thousands of shards around her.

Sarah jolted awake in midair, just in time to feel a sickening sense of vertigo before face-planting into the carpet in a tangled heap of blankets. Gasping, she bolted upright, trying to regain her bearings. She bent her knees and rested her elbows on them, still shaking from the nightmare. It was true that dreaming of the Goblin King had been a somewhat regular occurrence ever since her journey through the Labyrinth, but they had never been that vivid or that terrifying. She inhaled shakily, but was startled again when she heard the bathroom door open.

As she looked up, Sarah saw quite literally the man from her dreams step out of the hallway and past the living room wall. Except, rather than the hard face of the Goblin King of her past, she saw the rather toned down Jareth that she had gotten to know over the past few days, dressed in dark jeans and the black dress shirt they had bought at the mall. As Sarah sat there dumbfounded, looking past his humored expression, her body began to react in ways her senses vehemently opposed. "You look..." 'Incredibly handsome,' her mind ridiculously urged her to say, but she instead chose to end her phrase with "sharp."

Jareth looked down at himself and frowned. "It's not particularly comfortable," he observed, then looked down at her. "And you look..." he failed to hide his grin that had begun to spread across his face, "flustered."

Sarah frowned, looking at herself, to him, and back again. Her legs were tangled in her sheets, and she was missing a sock. How did he always manage to look his best when she looked her worst? Then again, he never really looked _terrible_. "Um...yeah, I had a bad dream." She smiled, but still couldn't shake the terrifying image of the Goblin King of her nightmare. She forced a laugh. "I must look pretty horrible," she half muttered to herself, using a hand to smooth out her hair.

She gathered up the sheets around her as she noticed Jareth approaching her. "I wouldn't put it quite like that," he said.

But as he extended his arm, Sarah shrunk back, kicking at the sheets beneath her. She looked up to see a confused and slightly offended Jareth leaning over her, hand extended, ready to help her to her feet. She quickly realized her mistake and reached for him. He helped her up easily, though she flinched at the touch of his cold fingers. Once she was on her feet, she looked down apologetically.

"Would you like to talk about it?" he asked softly.

Sarah shook her head, surprised by his sincerity. "I'm sorry." She dipped her head, and caught sight of the bandages on his hands, her mind shifting gears. "Wait, your hands!" He had just lifted her up off the floor and hadn't even said anything! She grabbed at one of them, and caught off guard, Jareth wasn't quick enough to react. "You shouldn't even be out of bed-"

"Sarah," he insisted. "I'm all right." He tried pulling his hand back gently, but Sarah held a firm grip. He suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

"There's no way," she gasped as she removed the bandages. A long, pinkish scar ran down the length of Jareth's palm where the picture frame had cut him only yesterday. She ran her fingers over his palm, then turned his hand over and analyzed the top of his hand with her fingers, examining first his knuckles then working her way up his wrist, feeling him relax under her prodding.

"Sarah..." he said, strained. "Please stop..." He didn't sound very adamant about it, and she wasn't quick to let go. She was adamant to figure out what had caused him to heal so quickly. He jerked away abruptly, his breathing heavy.

"What is _with_ you?" Sarah demanded, frustrated and slightly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," Jareth spoke quickly, stepping back. "You did nothing wrong."

She looked at him incredulously, then looked down at his hands. "How did you heal so fast?"

He ran his unbandaged hand through his hair, obviously wishing she hadn't brought up the subject again so soon. "I_ told_ you Sarah, I'm fae."

"And what _exactly_ is that supposed to mean?" she retorted, crossing her arms.

Jareth sighed heavily, pain marking his face. There was something he wasn't telling her, and it was something that even Sarah herself wasn't sure she wanted to know. "It _means_, I'm not..." he bit his lip, something she had never seen him do, and it made her uncomfortable to see him nervous. "Sarah, I'm not...I'm not exactly human." He whispered the last words and glanced down, as if afraid he'd frighten her.

So her assumptions had proved correct. She shrugged. "I figured as much." She grinned inwardly at his shocked expression as he jerked his eyes up to meet hers. As she looked at him, her eyes focused instead on the stove clock. She had to leave soon if she wanted to make it to work on time, or rather, if she wanted to save her soul, not to mention her social life and income. Sarah groaned, and as she caught Jareth's bewildered expression, began to gather up the blankets at her feet and pile them onto the couch. "I'd really love to hear more, but I need to get to work." She shot him an apologetic glance. In all honesty, she _did_ want to know more, but she also needed a bit of time to process this new information and to do some more reflection on the subject for herself before getting in too deep. Hell, who was she kidding? She was already _drowning_ in all of this.

Sarah shook her head in a futile attempt to clear her mind when she realized that Jareth had grown silent. She lifted her head, and saw that he bore a puzzled, almost guarded expression and was watching her carefully. "You're not..." he started, quietly.

"Surprised?" she finished for him. She finished heaving the rest of the blankets up onto the couch and sighed heavily. "You're a king of goblins. _Goblins_, Jareth. Did you honestly think I didn't assume you were..." she loosely waved her hand at him, "a bit different? Not to mention the fact that you exude glitter and have permanent eye makeup and almost die from breaking my picture frame." She stopped herself before she said too much. "I'm honestly just _curious_," she explained as she searched for her missing sock in the heap of sheets. "That's all. You of all people should know that I've always been curious." She quickly gave up her sock hunt and rushed over to the kitchen to fix herself a light breakfast.

She heard Jareth exhale slowly as he watched her run around the apartment, gathering the necessities for her day at work. "Very well," he conceded. "We will discuss it in further detail when you are less...rushed." Sarah simply nodded, stuffing a piece of toast in her mouth.

After she had taken a shower and was ready to leave, Sarah found Jareth in the kitchen, apparently looking for something to eat. She frowned at this, and spoke up. "I have to go to work. Um...I'll be back around five or so, but it looks like I'll need to go grocery shopping, so I might be a bit later." She bit her lip. "Is there anything specific you'd like?"

Jareth looked up at her, holding a carton of milk. "Nothing you'd likely have here," he said nonchalantly, eyeing the carton's ingredients.

She nodded, though she doubted he saw her. She slowly walked up to him, being careful not to startle him. "I want you to _rest_ today, okay?" She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him sternly. "I don't care what you are or how good you feel. You almost didn't make it yesterday and I don't want to take any chances of having a repeat incident, especially while I'm gone."

He swung his head to the side, his bangs falling away from his eyes, and smiled deviously. "Of course, mother."

Sarah heaved a sigh and shrugged her shoulders exasperatedly. "And don't leave the house." She jabbed a finger at him, ignoring his snarky comment. Turning around, she waved her arm. "But feel free to help yourself to anything in the kitchen, although there's not much there." She picked up her bag and walked toward the door, biting her lip and hoping that nothing would happen while she was away. 'He's an adult, Sarah!' she chastised herself. 'Probably much older than you, no less. He can handle himself.' She turned the door handle and stepped outside. "Goodbye," she said, falsely cheerful, as she watched the Goblin King lift a single hand as she slowly closed the door.

"Hey, welcome back!" Nathan called from his position at the copy machine across the office as Sarah walked through the door.

Sarah waved in response as she offloaded her bag and took a seat at her desk. She was not in the mood to deal with her colleague's exaggerated cheeriness today, and it didn't help that she couldn't get whatever Jareth might be doing off her mind. She dropped her head and pretended she was looking for something in her bag when Nathan walked over to his desk.

"You doing okay?" he asked lightly. "You seem to be feeling better."

Having no choice, Sarah looked up and forced a smile. It wasn't that she didn't_ like_ Nathan, or even that she didn't enjoy his company, but dealing with him in this particular moment in time seemed tedious and unnecessary. "I'm feeling a lot better, Nate. I didn't mean to make you worry about me."

He laughed. "Not worry about Sarah Williams, who has never missed a day of work but took off almost two full days in a row?" He brought his mouth back into a straight line when he noticed that she wasn't laughing along with him, and slowly sat down at his desk. Leaning over slightly he asked, "So what was wrong? If you don't mind me asking. ...Did everything turn out okay?"

Sarah sighed. She knew that he was legitimately concerned for her and was only trying to be friendly, but she was in no mood to make up stories yet again to get out of a sticky situation. "Yeah, honestly Nathan, everything went fine. You don't have to keep asking as if I'm hiding something from you." She regretted her harsh tone immediately when she saw the look on her coworker's face. "I'm sorry," she retaliated. "I've just had a really rough week. It's nothing against you, I promise." She forced a smile, and relaxed when he smiled back.

"It's no problem, Sar." She really wished he would stop calling her that. "Um, when you get a chance, I'd like to ask you something..."

He sure changed gears fast. She decided to go with it; this was work after all. "Oh, about the designs for the project? I actually drew up some ideas yesterday while I was at home..." Sarah began to reach for her bag, but he stopped her.

"It's not about the designs, Sarah."

The use of her full name caught her by surprise, and she looked up only to see Nathan intently focused on his desk's pencil jar. "What is it then?" she asked, worried that she had an idea about the nature of what he was about to say.

He suddenly jerked upright, smiling that perfectly false smile that seemed to trick everyone but her. "I was just wondering if, you know, you'd like to get coffee sometime." He paused, but continued to speak at an increased tempo after noticing her blank expression. "You know, just as fellow interns, or whatever." He laughed nervously and shifted in his seat. "Or we could get dinner, or..."

Sarah's mind went blank as he continued rambling. She had known Nathan had a thing for her for a while now, but she hadn't expected this so soon. Was he asking her on a date? Despite his learned outward display of confidence, she honestly didn't think he'd have the guts. No one went out with Sarah Williams. She kept to herself and everyone seemed to know that-except Nathan, apparently. But what harm could a cup of coffee do? Besides, he _had_ said it was just as fellow interns. 'What if he just wants to get to know me better, as friends?' she wondered optimistically to herself. But Sarah knew there was more to it than that, and there was no hope of convincing herself otherwise. She had to admit, Nathan_ was_ attractive, even if he wasn't her type. Hell, who _was_ her type? Joe? Definitely not, at least not any more. An ethereal king with voluminous hair and glittery pants? 'Who cooks you breakfast and waltzes around your apartment half-'

"I'd love to, Nathan," Sarah said all of a sudden, a bit too loudly. She noticed he was still muttering to himself as he looked up with wide eyes to meet hers.

"Y-you will? I mean..." he cleared his throat. "Great, that's awesome! I'll um, get you the details later. Sound good?" He was all smiles, and Sarah knew that this time, the emotion was genuine. It made her happy to see him so giddy.

'Hopefully,' she thought to herself as she resumed work on her designs, 'he doesn't take this for anything more than its face value.'

The rest of the week went by quickly, and Jareth was back to his usual self, which also meant that he was back on the living room couch. But he seemed content enough, always rose early to take a shower before Sarah, and even made her eggs on occasion, insisting it was the least he could do for her hospitality. He took frequent walks around the outskirts of the city while she was away at work, and would run errands for her while she was out. Sarah had to admit, she would miss the company and the convenience of having someone else around when it came time for Jareth to return to the Underground. That was something she didn't particularly want to dwell on, and really didn't have to, because neither of them were any closer to finding the key to bringing back Jareth's magical abilities.

They had yet to discuss any further details of the information he had revealed to her the other day, partially because Sarah knew he wasn't too keen on initiating the conversation, but mostly because work had been hectic to say the least. She had been forced to catch up on what she had missed, and along with the new designs she and Nathan were working on for the firm, it meant frequent late nights sitting up at her desk.

On Thursday night, Sarah returned home late to find Jareth avidly reading a copy of the _San Francisco Chronicle_ at the dining room table. But as soon as she stepped in the door and closed it behind her, he practically jumped up to greet her.

"What is it?" she asked, nearly jumping herself at his reaction to her arrival.

He immediately contained himself, trying to brush off his reaction as if it was normal. "Hm?" he asked dully, folding the newspaper carefully along its original creases.

Sarah sighed as she set her bag down. There was no use in arguing over it. If Jareth didn't want to tell her something, there was no way she was going to get it out of him. Besides, she was exhausted from her day at work and had no interest in wasting effort to pry it out of him. "Fine, don't tell me." But as she glanced around her apartment, something seemed different. The blankets on the couch were folded, the television didn't look quite as dingy, and even the kitchen counters had been cleared. "Did you..." she started, narrowing her eyes. "Did you clean my apartment?"

She didn't have to turn around to know that he was grinning. 'I swear, he's turning into some kind of housewife. As nice as all of this is, I'm not sure-wait.' Sarah spun around to face the smug expression of the Goblin King. "What do you want?"

He raised his eyebrows in mock surprise and held the newspaper to his chest. "Excuse me?"

"Come on, out with it," Sarah said plainly, motioning in the air with a hand and then crossing her arms. "What do you want from me?"

"Now Sarah," he began in that same coddling tone he seemed to love so much. "Must there always be ulterior motives behind acts of kindness?" She didn't miss his lips quirk into a wry smile.

"In your world, Jareth? Yes. _Always_." She narrowed her eyes at him and was now smugly grinning herself.

Jareth took a half step backwards and dramatically brought a hand to his chest, feigning injury. "You wound me, Sarah." He frowned, but it didn't last long as a devilish grin spread across his face.

"Have something you want to ask me?" she asked sarcastically, trying to hide her smile at his overdramatic act.

Jareth quickly regained composure and straightened his posture. "Well, aren't you eager to know?" He cleared his throat as Sarah sighed with her shoulders. "Very well." His expression suddenly became serious, and Sarah widened her eyes, interested now in what he had to say. "You've been very generous, Sarah."

A sharp pain rang through Sarah's head at his words. _"I have been generous up 'till now. I can be cruel."_ She shut her eyes tightly for a split second, but her reaction didn't stop Jareth from continuing.

"I'd like to repay you somehow, but I'll need your cooperation." He gazed into her eyes with what almost seemed to Sarah like longing, or perhaps the desire for her to understand his words.

'Wait, cooperation? What exactly did he have in mind?' She gaped and staggered backwards, holding her arms out in front of her. "Whoa, no, no way!"

"You don't even know what it is I'm going to ask," he laughed, perplexity written on his features as he observed her reaction to his words.

"I know you, Goblin King!" Sarah said, quite aware that he didn't like to be called that, pointing a finger at him as she backed toward the wall.

"Do you, now?" he asked, voice low as he gently crossed his arms. "And what, may I ask, do you believe it is I will request of you?"

Sarah ground her teeth together, her mind faltering, then shook her head. "I don't want any crystals or glitter or whatever else you want to give me. I don't want any of your...provocative gifts, or anything like that." She bit her lip, refusing to break eye contact as she awaited his response.

To her surprise, Jareth smiled. "Really, Sarah. I would have assumed you thought better of me." He took a long stride forward to meet her.

"How can you expect me to, Jareth?" she asked, inching up to the wall. How did she always manage to get herself into these kinds of situations? "After-"

He made a shushing sound as he brought his index finger to her lips, but did not touch them. Sarah felt her heart rate pick up, wishing that there was some way to widen the distance between them, for her own sanity if nothing else. "You're forgetting that I am lacking magical ability. I was simply interested if you would like to accompany me to dinner."

Dinner? That was it? Sarah wet her lips and exhaled as he drew his hand away. She cursed herself for her stupidity and her rash actions as she studied Jareth's humored expression. "Um...dinner?"

"Yes, Sarah. Is the concept so foreign to you?" He grinned at her with his sharp, white teeth, thoroughly enjoying getting a rise out of her.

The Goblin King wanted to take her to dinner? Like, to a restaurant? Had he ever even been to a restaurant? She thought silently for a moment, then concluded that he was probably going to rope her into it somehow no matter what she said. "Um...when?"

He rolled his eyes but smiled, knowing her words meant that she was indeed willing to cooperate, or was at least smart enough to know that she didn't ultimately have a choice. "Tomorrow evening. Does that suit you?"

Sarah looked down and nodded. Suddenly uneasy, she pushed her hair behind her ear. "Sure. So, what's the dress code?"

He was silent for a moment, tapped his chin, and then replied, "Something nice."

Sarah looked up, confused. "What is that supposed to-"

"Whatever you'd like it to mean," he interrupted, flashing her a mischievous grin.

Sarah huffed a sigh and crossed her arms. "Would it hurt you to be up front with me once in a while?" she asked frustratedly.

He paused, as if seriously contemplating her words, then answered, "Perhaps not."

Before Sarah could react, he turned around to grab his motorcycle boots that sat by the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked, snapping out of her trance.

"Out," he replied simply, and bowed to her slightly before exiting the apartment and closing the door behind him.

As soon as he left, Sarah let out a moan of frustration and stomped her foot as she used to during her teenage temper tantrums. What did he think he was doing, asking her to dinner? It was clear the man had too much time on his hands and too little to think about. 'I should have given him something better to do than run errands,' she thought to herself, glancing around. 'Well, at least the apartment's clean.'

The Goblin King did not return that night, or at least if he did, Sarah was unaware of it, as the blankets were folded neatly on the couch the next morning just as they had been the night before. She sighed, wondering what had become of him. For a moment she was even worried, but quickly reasoned with herself that he was quite capable of taking care of himself.

Sarah returned home from work that afternoon only to find Jareth still missing. She had left a key under the mat, so she knew that he wasn't locked out. Still, she figured he would keep their plans for dinner that evening, and didn't let it worry her too much. With nothing else to keep her busy on a Friday afternoon, Sarah tidied up the apartment and began to get ready for her night out.

'This is just as a thank you, right?' she thought nervously to herself as she held up a tan skirt next to a black dress. "'Something nice,'" she imitated cynically. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Jareth?" She exhaled exasperatedly and threw the two items of clothing onto her bed, retreating to her closet to find another option. She didn't want to underdress, but she certainly didn't want to overdress either, out of fear she'd give him the wrong impression. She pulled out a dark green gown that she hadn't worn in years. 'I don't even know if this still_ fits_ me,' she thought dejectedly as she threw it back into her closet. It wasn't as if she went out on fancy dinner dates every weekend. What if it was casual? Sarah paused and thought back to her ballroom dream from ten years ago. No, if she knew the Goblin King at all, if given the choice, he _definitely_ wouldn't go casual.

Just as Sarah was about to give up and wear the same clothes she had worn to work that day, she spotted one last item of clothing that had been pushed to the very back of her closet. She pulled out a knee-length, crimson dress that she hadn't even remembered owning. It was a sleeveless v-neck with an asymmetrical hem, causing it to ruffle out a bit on the bottom. Instantaneously, she remembered having bought it for some Greek rush event in college, and she hadn't worn it since. It was this or her work clothes, and Sarah decided that a dress would be best, to save herself from potential embarrassment if nothing else.

The dress fit much better than Sarah had expected, as she had filled out a bit since college. It hugged her curves in all the right places without being too revealing, and she wondered why she hadn't tried it on sooner. Also, the color was rather striking with her green eyes if she did say so herself. She proceeded to style her hair, leaving it down but pinning her bangs to the side and fixing the front layers of her hair behind her ears. Being careful not to overdress, Sarah chose some simple black flats to accompany her outfit, and didn't wear any jewelry. When she was satisfied with her appearance, she sat down at the dining room table to wait.

And wait.

What time had he said they were leaving? Oh, right, he_ hadn't_. Sarah began to worry as she looked from the stove clock to the door, but stopped herself as she noticed she was drumming her fingers. 'Why am I so nervous? He said it was just to thank me. It's just as acquaintances, nothing fancy. This is completely normal.' She played with a lock of hair. 'Yeah, because going to dinner with goblin kings is what I do _every_ weekend. Right.' She exhaled shakily and glanced at the clock again. 7:08. Where was he? But just as Sarah began to worry that he might have gotten lost on the streets of San Francisco, she heard a soft but deliberate knock at her front door.

Sarah jumped, her heart suddenly picking up pace. She breathed deeply to quiet her nerves, but she knew that nothing could prepare her for the evening she was about to experience. She slowly walked to the entrance of her apartment, playing with her hair one last time before turning the knob and opening the door. She nearly gasped at what she saw.

There stood Jareth, in fitted gray slacks, a shirt with a tie, and a blazer that fit his slender form snugly. Her eyes came up to his face, framed only by a few locks of golden hair that had come loose from the tie pulling it back, giving him a distinctly chic and modern look. Sarah gaped and felt her face heat furiously, her body already eager to throw all forms of sensible logic out the window. But she allowed herself to breathe a bit when she saw that Jareth looked just as dumbfounded. They stood there in silence for what seemed like minutes, neither of them sure what to say to the other.

He opened his mouth to speak. "You look exquisite," he said softly.

Sarah blushed until she was positive she was as red as her dress, and responded without making eye contact, "You don't look half bad yourself." She fidgeted.

"Shall we?" he asked, holding out an arm.

Sarah nodded quickly, turned off the light switch, and locked the door. She was reluctant to take his arm, having never done so before. But as he stood there, waiting, she figured it was best not to embarrass him, and awkwardly placed her hand on his forearm, following his lead as he began to walk toward the staircase.

"Sarah," he started, looking down at her, a certain brightness in his eyes. "May I make a request?"

"Y-yes?" she said, staring straight ahead, the uncertainty in her voice a bit too conspicuous for her liking.

He looked up again and smiled slightly. "Can we perhaps mutually agree _not_ to be enemies, just for tonight?"

Sarah let out a short laugh, taken aback that he should ask. As they reached the staircase at the end of the empty hallway, she responded sincerely, "I think I can do that."


	8. Confession

**Chapter 8 - Confession**

"You have_ got_ to be kidding me." Sarah stared speechless at the Lincoln Town Car in her apartment complex's parking lot. She looked up at Jareth for answers, but he just smiled in return. "This is too much!" she gestured toward the car's tinted windows. He had hired a _driver_? That must have cost a fortune! ...Wait. She spun around toward Jareth, blood pressure rising. "How did you-"

"Just _go_ with it, Sarah," he interrupted. "Can you never enjoy something without receiving a full explanation?" He gave her a toothy grin as he opened the car's back door for her. "You used to be so quick to accept things as they are," he said as he followed her into the back seat.

"Yeah well, I grew up, Jareth," she answered as she rolled her eyes, smoothing the front of her dress as she settled into the dark leather seat. She heard him chuckle to himself, but when she looked up, the neutral mask he always wore had returned.

The car was silent as they were driven right into the heart of San Francisco. Sarah had no idea where they were going, and the thought of Jareth being in control unnerved her. He had obviously planned this out beforehand, as the driver didn't say a word the entire time and knew very well where they were headed. Every couple minutes she shot a nervous glance at Jareth but he only returned her worried look with a mischievous smirk, tight-lipped and not willing to give away anything that would risk ruining the surprise.

As they turned a corner onto one of many one-way streets, the car pulled over and came to a halt. Sarah looked around, but couldn't see anything outside the dark window but the blurry figures of rushed people in business suits on the sidewalk. She jumped a bit when Jareth opened his door, holding it for her. Carefully pulling herself up, Sarah exited the car into the scene of the twilit city before her. She looked around at where they were, and slowly tilted her head upwards. Before her stood the entrance to easily one of the finest, most expensive steakhouses in the whole of San Francisco.

With her meager internship paycheck and the high rent of her apartment, Sarah had never even _dreamed_ about eating at a place like this. As she was about to spin around and begin interrogating Jareth about where he had acquired such funds, she noticed that he was speaking with the driver through the passenger side window. He seemed to be thanking him, and Sarah saw him hand the driver what she assumed to be a tip. He soon backed away to join her, and they watched as the Lincoln pulled away from the curb, leaving the two of them standing alone in the subdued evening scene.

"Shall we?" Jareth broke the silence, motioning toward the entrance of the restaurant.

"Yeah," she responded slowly. Sarah broke from her trance and gazed up at the well-dressed man beside her who, she realized, she didn't really know at all. What was she doing here? 'It was a ridiculous idea to go along with this,' she thought, shrugging to herself. 'At least I'm getting a free dinner out of it.' She looked him up and down suspiciously. "You have a lot of explaining to do later."

Jareth's lips twitched upward. "The key word is _later_, Sarah," he replied. "Let's keep it that way, hm?" He offered her his arm again, and led the way through the front doors.

"Mr. King," the well-dressed man at the front desk nodded as they entered the dim, lounge-like restaurant.

Sarah shot Jareth an incredulous glare, but he didn't seem to notice, instead nodding back to the man politely.

They were seated at a small booth in the back, secluded from the overtone of murmurs and classical music that filled the air. Jareth ordered a chardonnay for each of them, and as soon as the waiter had left, Sarah glanced around and leaned in to address him. "Really, Jareth?"

"'Really' what?" he smiled slyly, eyes glistening in the flickering candle light.

"'Mr. King'? You've got to be kidding me."

He sat back and stretched, placing his arm across the top of the leather booth. "I do know_ something_ of the aboveground, Sarah. My job requires me to spend a considerable amount of time here, after all. And _you_ were the one who wrote it on those papers at the police station." His calm demeanor contrasted sharply with her uptightness. "You're more clever than I give you credit for."

Sarah opened her mouth to speak again, but paused, a different question beginning to form on her lips. "Wait, what's your real last name?" She realized that she didn't even know Jareth's full name, and in fact didn't really know anything about the man who had been sharing her residence for the past week. "And do you even have the money to be paying for all of this?" She asked, motioning broadly with her arms to the space around them.

"So many questions, Sarah," he said slowly, so obviously more relaxed than she was. He was silent then, and looked at her expectantly, seeming to enjoy her reactions.

"Only because you don't give me any answers!" she rasped.

"My my, you _are_ persistent." He teased her by placing his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his folded hands. "You expect me to answer your questions at your very whim, yet you are so unwilling to talk about yourself."

She sat up straight in her chair and frowned. "You know everything about me."

He shook his head, a few golden strands coming loose from his pulled-back hair. "I know almost nothing about you, besides the fact that you are Sarah Williams, live in San Francisco, originate from the eastern United States, and," he lowered his voice, "defeated my labyrinth."

Ignoring the slight dose of contempt she picked up in his last words, Sarah folded her arms. "Well it's more than I know about you."

Jareth's eyes trailed downwards as he sighed. "Perhaps that is true." He swallowed. "Very well, one question." He held up a gloved index finger and looked at her expectantly.

"Only one?" she asked, dismayed.

"For now," he replied smugly, smirking at her disappointment.

"Okay," she started, deciding to stick with her original question for the time being. "What's your last name?"

Jareth shifted a bit in his chair, seeming unable to find a position that he found comfortable. "We do not employ such...superficial concepts in the Underground," he said cautiously.

When he didn't move to explain, Sarah reworded her question. "So you don't_ have_ a last name?" She found the concept difficult to wrap her mind around. "What do you use instead?"

"_That_ is another question entirely, dearest," he mocked, refusing to further explain his answer.

Sarah let out a frustrated sigh and folded her arms again. "You _would_ do that."

Jareth smiled again and shrugged. "Would you expect any less of me?"

His response made Sarah smile as she shook her head from side to side, managing to lighten the mood.

"Now," Jareth started, causing Sarah to look up in interest. "My turn. What brought you all the way out here?" He amended his statement when he noted the confusion in her eyes. "To San Francisco, I mean."

The waiter brought their drinks, and after they both ordered (Jareth sharply refusing the chef special of some variation on roast chicken), Sarah began to explain the story of how she had come to be an intern in San Francisco, starting with her college days and finishing with the job offer she received only months ago.

She finished just as their food was being brought out, suddenly realizing that she had probably talked too much. They thanked the waiter for their food, and Jareth waited for Sarah to begin eating before he cautiously took a bite of his own. "I guess a lot can happen in ten years," she contemplated wistfully.

She watched as Jareth's fork paused above his plate, and looked up to meet his distracted gaze. "Indeed it can," he mused.

"So what about you?" she asked casually, determined not to make this more awkward than it had to be. She felt strange interrogating him as if they were reunited acquaintances rather than decade-old rivals from parallel worlds. "What have you been up to?" She smiled awkwardly.

Jareth proceeded to place his fork on the table, and brushed his hair out of his face, eyebrows coming together at a harsh angle. "'Up to...'" he repeated slowly, then chuckled softly. "I suppose you could say I've been repairing the damage the last runner dealt to my labyrinth." He met her gaze, his expression lighthearted. But Sarah saw what she thought to be a flash of pain deep in his eyes.

She shrunk back slightly in her seat, looked down, and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Um..." she hesitated, not quite sure what to say. Things had been going relatively well up to this point; she had had no desire to ruin things by unintentionally bringing up their muddled past. "I didn't know-"

"I know, Sarah." Her head snapped up to meet his now serious gaze. He continued. "But it does not change what happened." He looked away from her, features still intense.

At his words, against her previous meditations, Sarah's temper flared. "Doesn't change what-" She stiffened and balled her fists in her dress. "I was trying to save my _brother_, Jareth. His life was at stake! I'm sorry you had a hard time after the fact, but I don't regret the decisions I made ten years ago." She meant it; there was nothing she would do differently if it meant being able to stop Toby from being turned into a goblin or whatever else Jareth had planned to do to him.

"Toby was never in danger." Jareth looked up. The sincerity was painfully evident in his voice.

Sarah's eyes widened, and tried to speak, but to no avail.

Jareth sighed, and continued. "I wasn't ever planning to turn your brother into a goblin, or harm him in any way, for that matter." His eyes flickered nervously from Sarah to his plate.

Why would he threaten to harm Toby if he had never meant to? Sarah gaped, her fork hovering above her plate, but he went on before she could respond.

"After you...left..." he started, obviously trying to ruffle as few feathers as possible. But the light atmosphere that the two had generated between each other for those few minutes seemed forever lost as he continued to delve into the past. "My kingdom was in a state of...disarray. No one has ever reached the center of the Labyrinth." He seemed to have forgotten that Sarah was sitting there in front of him, and had begun muttering to himself.

"Except me," Sarah whispered almost silently, stating her words almost as she would a question.

Jareth broke from his thoughts and sighed heavily, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes. "Yes, obviously."

She could see that he was distraught, and in a way, her heart ached for him. She had had no idea that her actions had caused him so much trouble. But what bothered her more than anything else was that, if given the choice, she wouldn't know what to do differently. He hadn't told her what would happen when she spoke those final words, so how was she supposed to have known they would send his kingdom tumbling into ruin? Sarah couldn't help but feel that there was something she was missing here. But mysteries aside, she felt bad for Jareth. Whatever had happened, he had been through a lot, and she had more than just a feeling that a significant portion of it was her fault, whether she had been previously aware of it or not.

Sarah's eyes fell on Jareth's gloved hand that rested on the table. He seemed lost in thought, and she watched his fingers tense slightly. She steadily removed her hand from her lap and set it on the table opposite his. "I..." She moved her hand closer, measuring his reaction carefully. He hadn't moved. "Jareth, I'm sorry," she confessed. "I honestly didn't know..." Sarah lifted her hand slowly from the table and placed it gently on top of his.

All of a sudden, Jareth jerked back as if he had been stung, nearly knocking over his wine glass, a wild expression marring his fair features.

Sarah drew back as well, feeling her face heat as she glared at him in disbelief. But as she shifted in her chair, ready at any second to get up to leave, she felt him grab her wrist.

She looked to him, pain and frustration swimming in his blue eyes. "Wait, please." There was such a deep emotion in the way he asked that Sarah couldn't help but settle back into her seat and listen. "I'm sorry," he nearly choked. "You did nothing wrong. You were unaware of what would happen. I do not blame you for your actions."

Sarah studied him for some time before nodding her head, and watched him relax again into the back of the leather booth. "I _am_ sorry, Jareth," she said softly after some time. "Even if..." she continued, "Even if I wasn't aware of the consequences of my actions. I'm sorry that you had to go through what you did."

He pursed his lips, a bit of the Goblin King she knew making a brief appearance. "I do not want your pity. I would not have told you had you not asked."

Sarah nodded, wishing she had just kept her mouth shut. But looking at his hand and contemplating the words that were beginning to form on her lips, she thought that she might risk just one more. Perhaps he would make an exception to the rule about asking only a single question. "What's wrong with your hands?"

Jareth's eyes snapped up to meet hers, an uncommon shock passing over his features. "What?"

She settled into the booth as best she could and repeated her question. "Your hands...why do you always wear gloves?"

He didn't respond for some time, and slowly exhaled, shifting again and adjusting his tie. "What exactly do you mean?"

He was avoiding telling her whatever it was she wanted to know, and that fact made her all the more interested. "You know," she said lightly, "At the police station you were reluctant to give your fingerprints, and when I was trying to help you, you pulled away from me, and..." she had begun counting on her fingers. "And I honestly don't remember ever seeing your hands before, you know, when..."

He nodded to finish her thought. "You're perceptive, I'll give you that much." He smirked uneasily. "I suppose it's more of a cultural development than anything else."

"Cultural?" Sarah asked, puzzled.

Jareth nodded, clearly more relaxed now at the subject change. "It's considered...a weakness to show one's hands in the Underground. Going gloveless is not something I am accustomed to."

Sarah stifled a laugh. He seemed so serious about it! 'But I suppose for a king,' she thought to herself, 'it probably holds a greater importance, to not show weakness.' She put a hand to her chin and nodded. "I see. But...you _know_ I'm not from the Underground and you also know that I'm not aware of the customs there."

Jareth cleared his throat. "Well," he laughed uneasily, "my hands are also very sensitive." He removed his hands from the table and placed them in his lap.

Sarah laughed audibly this time. "They're _what_?" she giggled, her laughing only becoming more uncontrollable at his horror-struck expression. "You've got to be kidding me," she said in between gasps. She noticed a couple near them give her a dirty look and quieted herself.

"I'm quite serious," he replied in an annoyed tone, crossing his arms and frowning.

'That explains why his hands felt so soft.' Her laughter subsiding, she shook herself and hoped that he couldn't see her blush in the dim light.

"Are you _quite_ finished?" he asked, half humored, half annoyed.

Sarah nodded, smiling at his reaction. "Sorry," she giggled, and as he shook his head, she caught him crack a grin in the candlelight.

Nearly as interesting as the conversation was the food, which was easily some of the best Sarah had ever experienced in her life. But given her company, she believed that she probably would have said the same no matter where she was eating, as she was much too distracted to think of anything but the man sitting across from her.

They continued to discuss the finer points of Jareth's ruling of the Goblin Kingdom, from dealing with the dismally low IQ of goblins to the economic policies of the city, which, if Sarah's college economics professor had anything to say about it, needed some major reforms. But who was she to judge? She listened with animated interest until Jareth insisted he had talked too much, and proceeded to ask Sarah questions about her job and her family.

After Jareth had paid the bill-and after a couple of glasses of wine-the two of them left the restaurant in good spirits. Sarah was honestly surprised that, besides a few bumps in the road, the night had gone so smoothly, and Jareth seemed to be under the same impression. The thanked the maitre de and stepped outside, only to find it deathly cold, the clouds above the high-rise buildings threatening to burst at any minute.

Taking shelter under the awning of the building, Sarah shivered. She had forgotten to bring a coat with her. 'You live in San Francisco and you forget to bring a coat to dinner?' She chastised herself as she ran her hands up and down her bare arms, glancing over at Jareth for his next course of action.

"The car is parked just down the street," Jareth remarked as he motioned for Sarah to begin walking.

She followed his lead, shivering as he walked behind her. All of a sudden, she heard a rustling sound, and jumped as something heavy and warm fell onto her shoulders. Looking down at herself, she blushed furiously as she noticed that she now donned Jareth's blazer, draped over her back like a cape. It smelled of licorice and a type of spice she couldn't quite place, and Sarah shivered as she inhaled deeply. "Um..." She began to shrug it off, but was stopped by two hands on her shoulders.

"Allow me to be a gentleman for _once_, Sarah," Jareth said in a low voice.

She didn't respond, not trusting her voice. She relaxed a bit when he took his hands off her shoulders and continued to walk beside her. They walked in silence as Sarah glanced around, hoping that the car wasn't too much farther. But just as she was about to comment on the weather to break the uncomfortable silence, Jareth stopped.

She turned to him and noticed that he had his back turned to her, staring into the window of the nearest building. It was a frozen yogurt shop.

Sarah sighed and smiled, walking up behind him. "Do you like frozen yogurt?"

He turned to her and gave her a bewildered stare. "Yogurt?"

Sarah laughed, to his further dismay. "It's like ice cream, but softer. It tastes a little bit different, I suppose. But it doesn't really taste like yogurt." He nodded, still staring through the window deep in thought, fascinated by the machines on the other side of the glass. "Do you want to try some? If you like ice cream you'll probably enjoy it." She shrugged her shoulders. It was the least she could do for him for treating her to dinner.

He looked at her, eyes wide in surprise. She took this as her cue, and pulled him by the forearm into the shop. This time he did not protest.

The yogurt shop was completely empty, save a worker who was repairing one of the machines along the wall. Jareth followed Sarah's lead in serving himself from one of the yogurt dispensers. Sarah topped her vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, and he put chocolate chips on his Irish mint flavor. She insisted on paying and took out her wallet before Jareth could react. He rolled his eyes at her, conceding defeat.

"You know, I have to give humans credit," Jareth started as they exited the store, taking a bite and looking at his pink spoon. "We have nothing even remotely similar to this in the Underground." He looked down at Sarah and smiled.

She paused as she tasted her own yogurt. Assuming that what he had just said wasn't meant to be an insult, she met his eyes with her own. "Well that's too bad."

"Indeed," he replied distractedly.

As they walked side by side along the sidewalk, silently enjoying their dessert, Sarah felt a raindrop fall on her hand. "Oh no," she moaned, holding her free hand out in front of her. Jareth noticed her reaction and looked up at the sky, but immediately shook his head when droplets hit his face.

He laughed deeply. "What terrific luck," he drawled.

"How much farther is the car?" Sarah asked hastily, pulling up his blazer above her head. It was just her luck that she would get caught in a rainstorm at the worst possible moment.

"Just another block or so," he answered, quickening his pace.

As they neared the intersection by the parking lot where the car was supposedly waiting for them, the weather took a turn for the worse, the droplets around them becoming dense. Sarah drew her arms in to her sides as they turned the corner, grateful she had worn flats. As promised, the Lincoln Town Car was sitting in a parking lot, waiting for them. The two of them discarded their empty yogurt cups in the nearest trash can, nearly breaking into a run as the rain started to fall harder.

Foregoing courtesy, Jareth rounded the car and they both dove in opposite doors, panting and dripping wet. He nodded at the driver, who pulled away from his parking space. Jareth shot Sarah a side glance and smirked, and she couldn't help but smile back. When had been the last time she had been caught in the rain without a jacket or an umbrella? The sudden storm reminded her of the cloudburst rainstorms back east, and how she would always forget her coat, even when Karen insisted she bring one. They were silent on the ride back to her apartment as Sarah looked out the fogged window at the blurred lights of the city, water trickling down the pane.

By the time they pulled up to her apartment complex, the storm had worsened. She saw lightning in the distance, and shot Jareth a nervous glance. But it went unnoticed, as he also seemed absorbed with the storm outside his own window. Jareth said something inaudible to the driver when he stopped the car, what Sarah assumed to be a "thank you," and watched as he slowly lifted the door handle.

"We'll have to make a run for it," Sarah said with just a hint of anticipation. Jareth nodded, and at the same time, they opened their doors and jogged in the direction of the staircase that led up to Sarah's apartment.

They made it to her door, Sarah fumbling for her keys, but by the time they finally made it inside, they were both drenched. She turned on the light and closed the door behind them, leaning on it for support as she caught her breath. She looked down at herself, thankful she hadn't decided to wear a lighter colored dress. Her hair was soaked as well, and a puddle was forming quickly where she stood. Jareth was no better off, perhaps worse so as he had lent Sarah his jacket. His normally feathery blond hair was matted to his head, giving him the appearance similar to that of a bird that had unwittingly fallen into a shallow pond. His shirt was soaked through, giving Sarah quite the view, and she blushed when he looked at her quizzically, water trickling down his angular face and neck.

"I'd better get out of these wet clothes," Sarah laughed uneasily.

Jareth nodded, studying her silently.

Sarah changed into some more comfortable loose jeans and a sweater, and pulled her wet hair back and out of her face. When she walked into her apartment's main room, she found an already changed Jareth leaning against the counter in his jeans and a v-neck shirt that she hadn't remembered them buying. She didn't dwell on it, and instead walked into the kitchen to put on a kettle of hot water.

"Would you like something to drink?" she offered. "I'm going to make myself some tea." She held up an assortment of tea bags as one would hold up a hand of cards, and presented them to him.

He pursed his lips, deep in thought, and proceeded to fluidly pull out a packet of Earl Grey, handing it back to her between two gloved fingers.

Sarah received it from him and moved to take two mugs down from the cabinet. After she had turned on the electric kettle, she turned to Jareth, who still hadn't spoken. "Thank you," she said sincerely. When he gave her a puzzled look, she continued. "For tonight. I had a nice time." She looked down, praying her blush wasn't as obvious as it felt.

He shrugged. "It was really the least I could do."

'I wonder what the _most_ is he can do,' Sarah's inner thoughts chimed. Suppressing them yet again, she replied, "Well you really didn't have to." She smiled at him politely. Were she and the Goblin King actually getting along? Or more accurately, not getting into a heated argument? She exhaled contentedly.

Jareth didn't reply as Sarah shut off the boiling water and poured tea for both of them. After he declined cream or sugar, Sarah handed him his mug, walking over to the couch with her own. "Careful, it's hot."

He nodded, chuckling. "Well, thank you for warning me."

She rolled her eyes at him and sighed exasperatedly. "Sorry," she apologized, shaking her head, "I'm used to being around Toby." That kid was such a klutz, hurting himself all the time and getting into the most difficult situations.

"I see," he answered, moving to join her on the sofa. After settling in a comfortable position on the opposite side of which Sarah was sitting, he asked, "You're close with your brother?"

Sarah was taken aback by the question, but answered truthfully. "Yes, I am. I believe he's quite fond of me." She smiled reminiscently and looked down into her tea. "I think it made it harder on him when I left, though."

Jareth nodded and took a sip of his tea. "All good things must come to an end." Sarah shot him a sideways glance, but he continued. "It's for the better that you moved out here. People must do what's best for them, and sometimes...that includes giving up what they love most." He looked up at her with an intensity that stirred her. It was as if he had dwelled on the thought for some time, and it made her uneasy.

"Jareth, I-"

Suddenly, Sarah heard a pop as her entire apartment was submerged into darkness.

"Dammit!" she whined, the blackout taking her mind off whatever she had been about to say. She placed her mug down on the coffee table and rose from the couch to fetch a candle and matches from the kitchen. She heard Jareth shift uncomfortably. 'Of _course_ the power goes out,' she thought with dismay, cursing her luck. "Where did I put those candles?" she asked herself as she rummaged through her kitchen cabinets. She continued for a while with no avail, and sat down on the kitchen floor out of frustration, sighing heavily.

"Do you need help?" she heard Jareth ask from his position on the couch.

She shook her head, then spoke up after she knew he probably couldn't see her in the dark. "No, it's fine. I just can't remember where I put them." They were silent for a while until Sarah spoke up again. "Do you know what this reminds me of?" she asked, her voice a few notches lower in volume than usual. The silence from Jareth's side of the room signaled for her to continue. "One of your absurd oubliettes." She giggled, but Jareth's reaction was not quite as jovial.

"Absurd, are they? I'll have you know that they are one of the Labyrinth's most effective traps." Even in the dim light, Sarah could have sworn he was grinning smugly.

"Yeah, except even Hoggle could navigate one, and he didn't even know the way out of the Bog of Eternal Stench," Sarah laughed, thick with attitude. "Nice young girl, terrible black oubliette," she did her best imitation of the dwarf, waving her arms in the air even though she knew Jareth couldn't see them.

"That idiot Hogbrain would only happen to find his way out of a cardboard box by sheer luck and willpower alone," he replied with just as much attitude, clearly enjoying a conversation about something he felt he could contribute to. "You're quite the trickster yourself Sarah, convincing the creature to do your bidding by leading you to the center of the Labyrinth."

"Hey!" Sarah replied. "We were friends!"

Jareth let out a full-throated laugh, making Sarah shiver slightly at the memories it conjured. "Of course," he said as he tried to stifle his laugh. "How could I have forgotten?"

Sarah chose to ignore his comments for now. She had no intention of getting into an argument with Jareth over Hoggle of all people. Instead, she continued digging through the cabinets in search of her candles and matches. "Ah ha!" she claimed triumphantly as she pulled a jarred candle out of a cabinet, grateful that Jareth couldn't see her ungracefully sliding back out. She took the candle over to the table and sat down on the sofa, holding it contemplatively. "Now, if I could only remember where I put the matches." She let out a defeated sigh. "It figures, doesn't it?" She pulled her knees up to her chest, pouting.

"Let me see it," Jareth offered. She felt his hand brush her leg and she jumped. "Oh, this is ridiculous," he said matter-of-factly. Suddenly, a light filled the space between them, illuminating both of their faces in the otherwise pitch black apartment. Sarah looked to its source, and gaped at the flame she saw hovering at Jareth's fingertips. He took the candle from her, lit it with his fingers, and placed it down on the coffee table, shadows now dancing on the apartment walls.

Sarah sat there frozen, staring at the candle, then at Jareth's hand. "You..." Rage suddenly built up within her, and she leaped up from the couch, ready for a fight. "How can you use magic?" she demanded, glaring at his half-shadowed figure in the candlelight.

He didn't seem to react to her words, but instead remained almost lethargically calm on her living room sofa. "Now Sarah..."

"Don't 'now Sarah' me!" She was nearly yelling now. "How long have you been able to use magic, Jareth?" It certainly would explain how he now seemed to have an endless monetary supply.

He sighed, motioning for her to sit, but she held her ground. "Please?" She didn't budge. He furrowed his eyebrows, looking to his hands which now rested in his lap. "About since I recovered from the iron poisoning," he said, his voice wavering.

"What? It's been days!"

"I know..." he started, "But-"

"But _what_, Jareth? How did you get your magic back? And why are you still here if you can use it?" Her interrogation was more harsh than she had intended, but Sarah's emotions were beginning to get the better of her. Why had he kept the fact that he had regained his magic secret from her? So he could drug her food? Or worse?

"Please sit down, Sarah," his words were an order, but his tone was soft, almost desperate.

Realizing that she wouldn't get answers unless she complied, Sarah sat stiffly, fists still clenched at her sides, refusing to break eye contact with the Goblin King.

"I believe," he started calmly, "and this is only a theory, mind you. But I believe I regained my power because of a certain resonance between us, or in simpler terms, a sort of unspoken mutual agreement."

Sarah looked to her lap, trying to understand his words. "In other words, we became...friends? Of sorts? So that means my original wish was fulfilled. But-"

"Correct, Sarah. I'm not sure myself exactly how it worked, so do not ask me."

"Wait," she started, having calmed down a bit. "Then why are you still here?" She eyed him suspiciously, as if trying to see past his hard exterior to his true motives.

Jareth sighed heavily, shoulders relaxing as he slowly lifted his mismatched eyes to meet her gaze. "Because, Sarah," he said slowly, "I do not wish to be friends."

She looked back at him, confused by his words. He didn't want to be friends? He had already made that much clear. "But then why don't you just go back to where you came from?"

He inched closer to where she sat on the sofa, causing her to tense slightly. There was an odd glimmer in his eyes that she tried to convince herself was being caused by the candlelight. "Because," his voice was nearly a whisper now. "I do not wish to _only_ be friends."

When had he gotten so close? Before Sarah could respond, Jareth placed his gloved hand on her jaw and inclined her head toward his. "I have never wished..." he pulled her toward him slightly, "to simply be _friends_ with you, Sarah Williams." She looked into his eyes, captivated by his gaze, making it impossible to tear away. And all at once, Jareth inhaled sharply, closed the gap between them, and consumed her lips in a fiery, passionate kiss.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

***GASP* Please don't kill me! I have more coming soon, I promise. Lots of fluff in the next chapter, as you can probably guess. ;) Finally getting somewhere, eh? Reviews are always appreciated. They really keep me going, and every single one brings a smile to my face and encourages me to keep writing. Hope you enjoyed~!**


	9. Desire

**Chapter 9 - Desire**

Sarah's world exploded.

Unresponsive at first, she sat there frozen, trembling as he kissed her softly. But as he began to pull away, Sarah softened her lips, her body desiring more than her mind allowed. Jareth pulled back regardless, leaving her incomplete, and chuckled softly as she leaned in.

Suddenly, she came to her senses as she opened her eyes to meet Jareth's in the low candlelight. She leaned back into the sofa and inched away slightly, blushing furiously. "Ah..." she started, brushing her hair behind her ears, at a loss for words.

"Sarah..." he sang softly, leaning in again and shifting his torso to face her. He reached a gloved hand up to her face to turn her toward him, but she jerked away. He gently touched his fingers to her jaw again, but this time applied no pressure.

Sarah sat there stiffly, unsure of how to react. One part of her wanted to run for her life and never turn back, but the other part of her-the _stronger_ part of her-wanted to relent to him and melt in his arms, releasing the pent up emotions that had been building within her ever since he had entered her apartment just days ago. No, ever since he had entered her parents' bedroom ten _years_ ago. Sarah placed her hands on the sides of her head and bent over at the waist. Her emotions were an ocean of turmoil and she couldn't think clearly with Jareth so close to her. Touching her. Kissing her.

She let out a muffled groan as she put her head between her legs. The Goblin King had just _kissed_ her. And it had been unlike anything she had ever experienced in her life, and almost certainly unlike anything she would ever experience again. 'And there's probably more where that came from.'

She felt something brush against her shoulders, what she soon realized to be Jareth's hair, and shivered as she felt his skin touch the nape of her neck. "Why do you always insist on fighting me, Sarah?" he murmured, nuzzling her shoulder softly.

She jerked away from his touch, still frozen to the spot. What was she supposed to do? She _wanted_ to-no, wait. What was she thinking? This was the Goblin King she was talking about here. Her sworn enemy, right? 'Who really didn't "steal" your brother, and who never intended to harm him. Who never actually intended to cause_ you_ harm, and who in fact wished to do just the opposite...' Sarah cringed. Jareth definitely had feelings for her, and she knew now that those feelings were most certainly not those of contempt. She wanted so desperately to reach up to her lips and touch them, to remember where his had been. She flushed at the thought, but was reminded of more pressing matters when she felt Jareth shift behind her again.

"What has you so distracted?" he whispered seductively.

Sarah jerked her head up to look at his devilish grin. He used the opportunity to pull himself closer to her, sighing as she inhaled sharply.

"Are you afraid of me, Sarah?" he breathed beside her ear.

She bit her lip, that all-too-familiar feeling pooling at the pit of her stomach. "N-no," she stuttered, cursing herself for sounding so unsure of herself. But the truth was, there was a part of her, perhaps a part of the Sarah from ten years ago, that still feared the Goblin King and what he was capable of. Not just with magic, but what he could do by simply being _close_ to her. She was vulnerable, and it made her uneasy.

"No?" He took the opportunity of her distraction to turn her head toward his. "Then why are you so nervous, hm?"

"I..." she started, mouth agape. She broke eye contact and glanced down, her chin still in his hand. "I'm confused." She tore her face away and rested her forehead in her palms.

"You're only confused because you won't admit what you want, Sarah," he said softly as he moved his hand to her knee. And then, almost silently, he whispered, "I know what you want."

She felt his cool breath against her cheek, and shut her eyes tight. But she was surprised when rather than grabbing her chin, he brushed her hair behind her ear, causing her to look up, only to find his face uncomfortably close to hers. But just as she was about to pull back, he grabbed her wrist and gazed into her eyes. The intensity was too much, and when Sarah opened her mouth to speak, no words came. What she wanted? What_ did_ she want? At the moment, her body was very obviously screaming 'Goblin King!' but her mind was too fogged to make a clear decision. Before she could manage to speak, she felt Jareth lean in to take advantage of her slightly parted lips.

He pressed softly at first, but as Sarah relented to the rhythm of his mouth on hers, he began to take chances and moved harder against her.

Whether Sarah's hormones had completely taken over her mental capacity to make rational decisions or not, at this point, she didn't care. Fireworks were exploding in her chest, and ecstasy was the only way to describe her feelings. As she grew accustomed to his rhythm, she began to kiss back. Years of pent-up emotions and tension between the two of them began to surge forth, barriers melting away like a glacier in spring.

Jareth's now loose hair fell around his face as he pushed Sarah against the armrest of the couch, breaking away only to suck in a deep, shaky breath. Sarah took pleasure in the fact that she wasn't the only one who was worked up. She searched for him in the darkness, and was disappointed when she found him missing. But her fears were soon calmed as she felt his soft lips begin to trail chaste kisses along her collarbone, working their way up her neck and along her jawline.

He teased her like this for a while, pecking at her nose, her cheeks, her forehead, gazing at her with deep intensity between kisses. "Sarah..." He whispered her name as if it was sacred. Just the way he said it sent her stomach into cartwheels.

"Mm," she responded, her thoughts clouded by her euphoria.

He gently ran a lock of her dark hair through his fingers, inhaling deeply as he brought it to his lips.

Sarah used his distraction as an opportunity to show her own affection. Without thinking, she grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back against the opposite armrest, much to his surprise if his twitchy movements served as any indication.

He stiffened, but didn't protest as she began to run her fingers across his chest and over his waist. She suddenly found herself wishing desperately that there wasn't a cotton shirt between her curious hands and his smooth skin. As she became more aggressive, she leaned in and kissed him full on the mouth. She felt him kiss back, though not quite as passionately as before, so she pressed harder, continuing to trace circles with her hands on his chest.

"Sarah..." he breathed heavily. He shifted under her, his body reacting to her touch. "Sarah, wait..."

He didn't sound very adamant about getting her off of him, and she wasn't about to comply to weak demands. But as she slipped her hands underneath his cotton t-shirt and finally touched the smooth planes of his abdomen that she had so longed to explore, he jerked awkwardly and sat up, pushing her off of him as gently and quickly as possible.

It took Sarah a minute to realize what had just happened, and when she came to terms with the fact that she had just been coming on to the Goblin King and was now sitting on the other side of the couch quite alone, she exhaled shakily and felt her face heat with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," he said, head down. He wiped his face with a gloved hand, his breathing still shallow. "I don't want to get carried away."

Sarah blushed furiously and focused on the flickering flame of the candle in front of her. The fact that _she_ had almost caused the Goblin King to get "carried away"-whatever _that_ meant in his terms-startled her. She nodded in apology, hiding her face behind her long hair.

"It's not your fault," he breathed. "I shouldn't have-"

"No," she interrupted quickly. "It's all right. I'm sorry."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jareth pause and turn his head slowly toward her. "What?"

She shook her head. She hadn't meant to say that. 'You're an idiot, Sarah! What have you gotten yourself into?' "I mean..." She had had no more than an inkling that he felt this way about her, and now that she knew for certain, she was beginning to see things from a different perspective. She also didn't completely understand the full implications of his words before they had displayed their feelings so...passionately. His words about friendship and what he wanted, or something of that nature. Her logical mind, clouded as it was, knew that she needed clarification before they took things any further.

She stood up quickly, legs trembling. She didn't know what _either_ of them wanted. She just knew that she had to put some distance between herself and the fatally attractive man sitting next to her to give her any hope of thinking clearly. _Not_ putting herself in a position to sit in his lap was probably a good first step. She turned around and began to walk back toward the kitchen, as much as her body willed her to stay. He had said he didn't want to "only be friends." The words from _The Labyrinth_ came rushing back to her like a curse.

_"But what no one knew was that the Goblin King had fallen in love with the girl..."_

She audibly moaned and covered her face with her hands. She refused to believe she was the one the words in the book described. For all she knew, it wasn't even the same goblin king within the leather-bound pages of her childhood novel. But she knew that was hoping for too much. Without turning to face him, she asked, "Did you mean it?"

She heard Jareth stand up from his position on the couch. He was silent for a while before he replied. "Did I mean what?"

Spinning around and tearing her hands from her face, she raised her voice. "When you asked me to stay, ten years ago. Did you mean it?"

The shock that had begun to spread over his features at her question gave her an idea of what the answer might be, and she wasn't sure she was completely comfortable with receiving it. He quickly reigned in his emotions, but his eyebrows remained drawn in concern. "Sarah, _must_ we talk about this-"

"Yes, we have to talk about it now," she interrupted, her voice now trembling as much as her legs. She was confused, and couldn't make any rational decisions without first knowing the truth, not from a book, but from him.

"I..." he started, stepping toward her and placing a hand to the back of his head. He was silent then, as if he was struggling to say the words but they simply wouldn't come. He let out a defeated sigh, and looked up to meet her eyes as best he could in the dark apartment. Clenching his teeth, he sucked in a deep breath. "Of course I meant it," he said all at once, cringing as he anticipated a reaction from her.

She stared at him blankly, eyes wide. "You...what?" She stood there, completely still, rage building up within her. So it really wasn't a diversion after all? How could he possibly have meant that? Did that mean... "I was fifteen, Jareth! _Fifteen_!" She waved her arms at him. "How could you-"

"Sarah, you misunderstand me," he said calmly, but she could sense his desperateness as he stepped toward her, arms extended.

"Oh, I believe I understand perfectly!"

"No!" he yelled, lunging forward and grabbing her wrists. "You _don't_."

As much as she strained her eyes, she couldn't see his face in the dim light as he brought their clasped hands between their chests. "I..." he broke his gaze and looked to the side. "I had taken a curious interest in you...that is all." He looked back at her, pain in his eyes, desperate for her to understand.

She looked at him in disbelief, unable to comprehend his words. "How am I supposed to know what that means?" She tried unsuccessfully to free herself from his grasp. "Hell, for all I know you're using your magic right now to-"

"You _really_ believe-" he choked, gripping her wrists tighter while attempting to control his temper. Suddenly, the harshness in his voice melted away, revealing the emotion that had been brewing behind his cool façade. "I was interested in you. In your belief in magic, such a rarity among humans. I was intrigued by the games you played, by your strong-willed spirit." He paused, loosening his grip. "I was _curious_ about you, Sarah, and it is in my nature to pursue such things. I did not..." He lowered his voice slightly, and brought his face away from hers. "I did not realize I had developed...feelings of that nature for you until more recently."

She could feel tension like electricity in the air between them as she absorbed what he was saying. But honestly, had Sarah felt any different about him? Did she not call on the goblins out of curiosity to see if they would actually come? She had, subconsciously or not, wanted to challenge the Labyrinth as a way to escape her mundane life and explore a new world that she could call her own. And no matter how vehemently she had denied it, Sarah knew that in her fantasy-saturated teenage heart she had dreamed of facing off with a powerful and otherworldly king, perhaps to even remain by his side, able to traverse this new world with no boundaries or limitations set upon her. Jareth hadn't been lying when he had said he offered her her dreams.

"How do I make you understand?" he begged as he lowered their hands, still refusing to let go. Leaning in closer, he brought a gloved hand to her face, but didn't touch her. Instead, he brought it to his mouth, and caught the middle digit of the glove between his teeth. Sarah watched, mesmerized, as he pulled off the glove of his right hand, loosening one finger at a time, never releasing Sarah's wrist with his other hand. He slowly stripped off the black leather until the entirety of his ivory hand was exposed, and carefully set down the glove on the countertop. He immediately brought his attention back to Sarah, who had been silent the entire time, her mind whirring with sensory input.

She clenched her teeth and looked straight on as Jareth gingerly placed his cool, bare hand on her cheek. As he began to slowly move his thumb in a circular stroking motion, she began to relax, and closed her eyes.

"You're getting distracted again," he whispered deeply.

How could she _not_ get distracted with him doing that to her? Wasn't that the point? She wanted to say it to his face, but the sensation running across her cheek that had begun to creep down her spine was just too lovely to interrupt.

"Do you understand, Sarah?" His voice now sounded slightly strained, a hint of uncertainty leaking through his well-trained façade.

She sighed into his hand, leaning into his touch. She understood more than he realized. She had been no different, besides the fact that her actions had perhaps not been quite as meditated. But what difference had it made? She had hurt him and his kingdom by being curious and in turn insensitive. Eyes still closed, she slowly nodded against his palm, and immediately felt the tension between them dissipate as he relaxed.

She felt his hair brush against her, eyes still closed. With his palm still placed softly on her cheek, he placed his free hand on her lower back, drawing her closer toward him. He leaned in, and Sarah felt his soft lips meet hers, though more cautiously than before. Her body responded in celebration, and as he began to break away, she reached up around his neck and leaned into him, determined to keep their lips joined for as long as their lungs would allow.

After they broke apart, Jareth breathlessly chuckled, "I'll take that as a definite 'yes'," as he stroked her dark hair. "You are so fickle, Sarah," he said as he looked down at her, beaming. "I do believe that you will always remain a mystery to me."

She looked up at him mischievously. "But doesn't that keep things interesting?" They both laughed in the low light of her apartment.

"Indeed it does," he answered slowly.

He then glanced around and changed topics. "The electricity situation seems disheartening."

Sarah snorted, rolling her eyes in disbelief. "You're the Goblin King and you're concerned about the power going out?" It seemed so silly to her that such a minor thing was capable of distracting him.

He shrugged, Sarah still clinging to his arms. "I was only going to suggest that we make the most of it." Even in the dim lighting, she caught a flash of his sharp teeth.

Sarah laughed uneasily. She had no way of knowing what he meant by that, but she took comfort in the fact that he was not the only one who was a mystery to the other.

A few minutes later, after accepting that power would not likely be returned to her apartment tonight, Sarah had uncorked a bottle of red wine that had been sitting in her cabinet untouched for months and poured them both a glass as they took a seat on the couch.

"So indulge me, Jareth," she started comfortably, smiling as she saw his eyes snap up to hers. "What _exactly_ did you mean when you said you weren't human?"

He laughed softly, the disappointment obvious on his face. "Have we not already gone over this?"

Sarah shook her head and smiled. "You've barely told me anything about yourself." She took a sip from her glass and smiled mischievously. "What do you have to hide, hm?" She inwardly laughed as she saw him draw his eyebrows together in concern. She seemed to derive a sort of sadistic pleasure from getting Jareth worked up, perhaps because of the fact that he seemed so hard to fluster.

He sighed in defeat. "Very well." He took a long drink from his own glass, then set it down on the table. "I'm really not so different from yourself, you know," he smiled, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Sarah rolled her eyes at him dramatically. "For some reason I find that hard to believe."

He looked away from her and nodded, smiling slightly. "How do I explain? Fae are, I suppose, the Underground's equivalent to humans." He bit his lip, careful about his choice of words.

"Except you can use magic," Sarah continued skeptically.

"Yes," Jareth said cautiously, "but that has more to do with the magical atmosphere of the Underground itself than race." He tapped his finger to his chin, deep in thought.

Sarah guessed that he had never had to explain this to anyone before. Suddenly, a thought struck her, and her sudden response made Jareth jump slightly. "Wait, does that mean that I could potentially use magic? But I couldn't last time I was-"

"I maintain complete control over all magic in the Labyrinth," he said simply, and then resumed his thinking position.

She shrugged. "So say I was outside of the Labyrinth then. Would I be able to-"

"Have you lost interest in your initial question?" He looked up at her with impatient eyes. "If so, I would be more than happy to move on to a subject I find more tasteful."

Sarah snapped her mouth shut, swallowing her words. "Sorry," she whispered. When he didn't speak right away, she asked, "So does anything give humans an advantage? Besides the fact that they're not allergic to iron?"

He laughed dryly. "Well for one, fae do not have nearly the emotional...depth that humans do. Many of them lack the same passion for life that I see in so many people aboveground." He looked up at her and forced a smile, and Sarah knew he was telling the truth. "So as you can see," he concluded, "the differences are significant, but few. But for all intents and purposes, we are very much the same."

Sarah nodded, absorbing what he had just told her. Did Jareth find it difficult to display emotion? She knew he preferred to remain straight-faced, but she thought that had to do with the whole royalty thing. Sarah eyed him suspiciously. There was something he was avoiding; something he didn't want her to know. "So why don't they? Have a 'passion for life' I mean."

Jareth opened his mouth, but didn't answer, promptly closing it. He tightened his fists in his lap and turned away from her. It was a rare situation in which Jareth seemed quite unsure of what to say.

Suddenly, Sarah was reminded of something that he had said earlier that she had forgotten in the heat of the moment. 'I've already taken off a century's worth of vacation time...' Sarah placed a hand over her mouth, focusing on the polished wood of the table in front of her. Her lips slowly formed the question she wasn't completely sure she wanted to ask, but had to know. "Jareth, how old are you?"

After a few moments of prolonged silence, Sarah only looked over at Jareth to make sure he was still breathing. He sat there rigid, and Sarah feared that he would cut off circulation to his hands if he clenched them any tighter. She observed in silence as he exhaled shakily and lifted a hand to run it through his hair. The tension seemed to release from him as he did this and turned to face her, putting his knee on the sofa and folding a leg underneath him.

"How old do I look, Sarah?"

His question took her by surprise. "Um..." she glanced at him, but quickly averted her eyes as she blushed. She felt slightly foolish now for asking her question. How does one go about applying such a superficial thing as _age_ to the Goblin King? He was young and old all at once. "I dunno...mid-thirties, maybe?" Sarah figured he did look quite a bit older than her, but he certainly didn't look a day over forty. What bothered her more than anything, however, wasn't how old he looked _now_, but the fact that he didn't look a day older than she had remembered him ten years ago. At first she had blamed it on a faulty memory, but the more she found out about Jareth, the more she felt there were things about him he was hiding from her, causing her suspicions to build.

He nodded slowly and looked down at his hands. "That's probably accurate," he commented.

Sarah shook her head. "So wait, you're really thirty-something?"

He raised his head and smiled weakly. "I mean that you are probably correct in your assumption that I _look_ 'thirty-something.'"

Realizing her mistake, Sarah huffed and took a long drink from her glass. When she was finished, she poured herself a bit more and continued. "So you're _not_, is that what you're saying? How much am I off by?"

Jareth laughed at this. "A bit."

She growled, only eliciting more laughter from the man beside her.

"The fae are longer-lived than humans," he stated simply, his expression darkening.

Realizing that he wasn't joking, Sarah sat up and looked at him. "So what's the average life expectancy?"

At this, Jareth broke eye contact again, proceeding to pick up his glass and take another long sip. He swallowed, but it was quickly followed by, "It depends." When he saw her relentless stare, he hesitantly continued. "It depends upon how content a fae is with his or her life. I suppose life expectancy can range anywhere from...hundreds to thousands of years." He shot her a worried glance, but Sarah barely noticed.

_Thousands_? However old Jareth was, he was much older than she had ever envisioned. "So in theory," she said, quieter now, "if one is 'content,' as you say, he could live..." She didn't want to think about it.

"Forever, yes." Jareth had stopped moving, and was now hunched over, elbows on his knees, yet again avoiding Sarah's gaze. "But that rarely happens. Most grow...weary of life's hardships."

Sarah nodded slowly. She could understand that much for sure. "So in other words, you're more or less immortal." The word fell like a lead weight and made Jareth flinch.

"For your purposes...I suppose to an extent that is true." He glanced over at her, only to see that Sarah had taken a more relaxed position on her side of the couch.

Her head was spinning, and she didn't think it was just the alcohol. "Oh, man..." she moaned as she held her head in her hands. She felt Jareth shift closer to her, but ignored him and instead polished off her second glass of wine. Of _course_ the man who had been practically placed in her lap by fate, to whom she happened to be conflictingly attracted, would not only be an inhuman magical king, but immortal to boot. She reached for the wine bottle that sat on the table and poured herself another full glass. As she lifted it up to her mouth, she heard Jareth shift again beside her.

"How much wine have you had?" he asked, sounding a bit more worried than Sarah was accustomed to.

"If I'm hearing what you're saying correctly," she started, placing the bottle down and relaxing back into the couch, "Either too much, or not enough." She laughed at her own joke, but when she looked up, Jareth wasn't smiling.

"Sarah, I know it's a lot to comprehend, but-"

"Damn right it is!" she said a bit too lazily and slightly louder than normal. She cracked a smile at his shocked expression as she lifted her glass to her mouth again. "You know," she said cheerily as she eyes darted around the room, "I don't really want to think about it right now." She nodded, agreeing with herself.

"You wanted to know," he started, but stiffened when Sarah put her glass down and brought her legs up onto the couch, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Mmm," she hummed, snuggling into the cushions. Perhaps it hadn't been a particularly good idea to drink so much alcohol, especially after the drinks they had at dinner. The room started to blur, but she fought to retain her focus. She made eye contact with Jareth, who bore a humored but slightly concerned expression.

"Are you all right?" he asked as he suppressed a laugh.

"Peachy," she replied. Contemplating her response, she laughed loudly, her chuckles soon dwindling into a fit of giggles. "Get it? Peachy?" She gasped for air only to collapse into laughter again. "So tell me, Jareth," she slurred. "Why peaches?" She had shifted onto her knees and was now sitting with her hands on either side of her.

He smiled uneasily and shifted backwards. "Even if I told you, somehow I doubt you would remember it in the morning."

She tried to focus on his face, but the flickering candlelight was frustrating her, so she decided to close her eyes instead. She sighed in defeat and scooted closer to him on the couch until they were just inches apart, paying little notice to how unrelaxed Jareth seemed next to her.

"Sarah, maybe you should go to bed," he smiled.

She looked up at him, confused. She did feel sleepy, now that she thought about it. "Maybe you're right," she mumbled, inching closer to him until their hips were touching. Sighing contentedly, she carefully laid her head on his shoulder, nuzzling the soft material of his shirt. She felt Jareth fidget awkwardly, but he soon relaxed as she found a comfortable position.

He sighed in turn, lifted his arm, and wrapped it around her shoulder. Sarah gazed up at him, and after a while, he looked back down at her with pity in his mismatched eyes.

"You know," she started, sighing into him, "you're very handsome."

Jareth's body went rigid, and she could have sworn she saw his perpetually pale cheeks redden slightly as he looked away from her.

"No one's ever told you that?" she giggled.

"I don't make a habit of taking compliments from intoxicated women," he said seriously, chancing a glance down at her again.

"Hey, I'm not drunk!" she whined, but found herself unable to focus on his face. "Okay, not _that_ drunk." She laughed again and snuggled closer to him.

"As much as I'm enjoying this," he started slowly as he felt her wrap her arms around his torso, "I believe it's time for you to-" His words were cut short as he inhaled sharply.

Sarah had shifted, now nearly sitting in his lap, and began to slowly run her hands up and down his sides. Head clouded with the haze of intoxication, she grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it to expose his midriff, continuing to slide her hands across the smooth planes of his bare skin.

"Sarah..." he rasped, grabbing her hips in an effort to push her off of him. But the action only resulted in her coming in closer to him, now straddling his legs with her own. His breathing became shallow as he tilted his head back, swiftly losing what little control he had over the situation.

She moved her lips to his neck, but as she began to make her way up his jaw, Jareth lifted her off of him in one swift movement and placed her on the couch beside him. She looked around, unaware of her surroundings. She caught his icy blue eyes for a moment, but her own were slowly slipping closed.

Jareth lay against the back of the sofa, breathing hard, and looked over at Sarah and sighed. "I swear to the gods that you will be the unravelling of me for a second time."

But Sarah didn't hear him, and quickly slipped under the deep haze of contented sleep.

Sarah awoke to the peaceful sound of rain pattering against her window. As she opened her eyes, a splitting headache gripped her and she screwed them shut again in pain. But as she tried to lift her hands to her face, she realized that she was unable to do so. She shifted, struggling to free herself from whatever was restraining her, but found herself instead easing back into the warmth of her bed, her mind fighting for more sleep. 'It's so warm,' she smiled to herself, relishing waking up to a rainy Saturday morning, even if she did have a headache.

She attempted to raise her arms again, but this time, she felt whatever it was that was restraining her shift as well. She froze, realization dawning as she looked down in horror. Sarah was flush with the body of none other than the Goblin King, and had no idea how she had managed to get herself into such a highly compromising situation.

She felt his arm lift from her side and shivered as she felt soft, thick locks of hair brush against her neck. Not daring to turn to face him, Sarah felt her face heat as she thought of last night. 'Last night,' she thought. 'What _happened_ last night?' She remembered snippets...the power had gone out, Jareth had...and she had... 'Oh God.' Now that her arms were free, she brought up the sheets around her head in a futile attempt to hide herself. Not that it did much good; Jareth was under the sheets as well.

"Good morning, precious," he cooed from behind her, placing his chin delicately on her shoulder.

She felt his cool breath down her neck and squirmed away from him, as much as her body protested.

"And where are you going?" he said deliberately as he wrapped his arm around her again, trapping her against him. It was at that moment Sarah realized Jareth wasn't wearing a shirt.

She yelped as she was pulled back into him, continuing to struggle futilely.

"You just don't know how to make up your mind, do you?" he whispered into her ear seductively.

"Let go of me," she whined weakly. She didn't want him to in all honesty, but she had an awful headache and knew that if she didn't stop physical contact with Jareth soon, it was only going to get worse.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he strained, squirming a bit himself.

Sarah struggled a bit longer, but when Jareth didn't say anything, she froze as she realized what he meant. His chuckles vibrated through her, giving her a strange sense of both warmth and uneasiness. He soon let go however, and rolled over to lie on his back.

Sarah sat up as soon as she was free, something she instantly regretted as the headache returned. "Oww," she groaned as she brought her hands to her face and her knees to her chest, curling her toes. She looked down at Jareth, who was all too relaxed, bare arms behind his head, golden hair spread across his pillow. It was all too much. "Why are you in my bed?" she blurted.

He smiled lazily, then turned on his side to address her, propping his head up on one arm. "I had no choice."

She glared at him through her hands, not sure she liked where this was headed. "...What do you mean?"

"Well," he grunted, sitting up a bit. "After your failed attempt to so blatantly seduce me in your intoxication, you fell asleep stone drunk on the couch, and I had no option but to bring you back to your room. But alas, you refused to let go of me, and foiling my attempts as always to be a gentleman, you insisted I stay." He watched with humor as horror claimed Sarah's features. He gestured at himself as if to say, "and here I am," before placing his hands behind his head again.

Sarah listened in dismay as pieces of last night realigned themselves with her memory. She buried her face in her hands again, wishing she could retreat under the covers without seeming childish. At that moment, she felt a strong hand grip her shoulder.

"It's all right, Sarah."

Without looking up, she felt Jareth get up out of bed and heard him brush his hair back. Unable to resist looking, Sarah opened her eyes just in time to see him stretching, and watched in amazement as the muscles of his back flexed ever so fluidly. He was still wearing jeans (which Sarah's sanity thanked him for), but had removed every other visible article of clothing. Sarah bit her lip, and managed to avert her gaze just as Jareth turned around to face her.

Seeing her distress, Jareth expressed his concern. "Are you not feeling well?"

She groaned as she rubbed her temples. "Have you never experienced a hangover?" How could she have been so stupid to drink too much in front of him, especially with how he made her feel when she was _sober_? Then again, how could she _not_ have? The occurrences of last night were and had been too much for her to handle, and alcohol had been the safest and most expendable source of mind-numbing substance available. She made a note to herself not to make a habit of it.

"I can guess at what it must be like," he laughed.

She didn't have the energy to delve too deeply into the meaning of his words. Instead, she threw the covers off her legs and stretched to stand up. Still embarrassed by the whole situation, she averted her eyes from Jareth's half-naked form, pushing roughly past him and out the door of her bedroom as she fought to maintain her balance.

Moments later, Sarah sat at the dining room table, munching disdainfully on a bowl of dry cereal. "I need coffee," she moaned.

Jareth sat across from her, now fully dressed, and studied her with concern. When Jareth motioned toward the pot on the kitchen counter, she waved a hand to stop him.

"_Real_ coffee. San Francisco coffee."

He looked at her, puzzled. "I'm not sure I follow," he spoke slowly.

Sarah paused as she roughly swallowed, an idea striking her. "About how much of San Francisco have you seen?" she smiled, placing her spoon in her cereal bowl.

He shot her another confused glance, but replied, "Only what I've seen on my own..." He seemed unsure of what she was getting at.

She nodded, stood, and placed her hands on her hips confidently, even though she was sure she looked a downright mess. "Well while you're here, you might as well see the city. It's..." she searched for the right words, "your style."

Jareth gave a slight smirk and leaned back in his chair. "If you're using a guided tour of San Francisco as an excuse to find a cure for your hangover, I'd be happy to accompany you." Slowly standing to join her, he mock bowed, and smiled widely when he saw Sarah stifle a laugh.

"Alright then," she concluded, "get ready. We're going out."

But as Sarah grabbed her things, a thought crossed the front of her mind that had been dwelling there for some time. As much as she tried to suppress it, even last night she couldn't manage to completely forget. Jareth himself had avoided the subject like the plague, and Sarah could feel that something wasn't right. The truth was, sooner or later, Jareth would inevitably return to the Underground, and with the way things had gone last night, Sarah hadn't the slightest clue where Jareth had placed her in the equation.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**I hope it was worth the wait! I'm already hard at work on the next couple chapters. They're pretty intensive, and I want to get them right. What do you think of these recent developments? ;)**


	10. Revelations

**Chapter 10 - Revelations**

"Oh my god!" Sarah screamed as she pedaled backwards into her dining room table. She grabbed a table fork from behind her, ignoring the chair she had knocked over, and held it out in front of her defensively.

Before her stood a man who she presumed to be Jareth, but that fact remained unclear, as he looked nearly unrecognizable. Having only been out of sight for moments, his formerly long hair was now cropped short, though it still fell around his face in a disheveled mess. His silvery eye color had disappeared, and even his swooping eyebrows seemed less angular. All in all, Jareth looked, well, _normal_. 'Never thought I'd use that word to describe the Goblin King,' she snorted.

She jabbed her extended arm at him. "What the hell did you do?" she asked cautiously, being careful not to drop the fork in her hand.

The new Jareth smirked as he always did, leaving Sarah without a doubt that it was the same man she was dealing with. "What do you think?" He turned slowly, arms extended, and then brushed his now short hair out of his face.

His movements caused Sarah to back up further against the table until she risked tipping backwards. "_What_?" she replied hoarsely. She shook the fork at him as if it actually posed a threat. "What did you do to your hair?" He had had such lovely hair.

"Sarah, I'm offended," he said with a frown, unable to hide the humor in his voice. "I honestly don't believe there is any possible way to please you." He walked forward and into the kitchen, paying little attention to her irritated state.

'He can bet there's a way to please me, all right.' Sarah growled under her breath, forcing the thoughts from her mind. Certainly, Jareth was by all means still attractive, but currently, he somehow lacked that certain ethereal electricity that drew Sarah to him like a moth to flame.

Jareth opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk, shook it, and frowned. "I suppose my assumption was incorrect when I thought you might like this look. But I must say, I'm flattered that you seem to have such fondness for my more...natural state." He smirked mischievously and took a swig from the milk carton. When he removed it from his lips, Sarah's annoyance at his behavior turned to shock. There before her again stood Jareth the Goblin King, complete with upswept eyebrows and long wispy hair, looking perpetually frozen in a moment in time as always. He smiled at her reaction, shrugging. "It's just a glamour, Sarah. I assumed you'd rather not draw attention as you give me a tour of the city."

Of course he would assume that _she_ would be the one who would be stared at for towing _him_ along. Sarah released a growl of frustration, stomping her foot and not caring if it made her look immature. "You always do that!" His face went blank, and she continued. "You purposefully confuse me just so you can get a kick out of my reaction! Do you have any idea how disorienting it is?"

He simply smiled in return. "But your flustered reactions are so adorable, I just can't help myself." He lifted the milk carton to his upturned lips to take another sip.

At that, Sarah lifted the fork above her head, a twisted glee consuming her as she watched Jareth's eyes widen from the other side of the apartment. Too angered to speak, she pulled back her arm and sent the fork hurtling toward her now fearful housemate.

Jareth immediately tore the carton away from his mouth and ducked behind the door of the refrigerator just in time for the fork clatter against it. He popped up and swiveled his head around, shock written all over his face. "You're a madwoman!"

"Oh, a bit short." Sarah nearly laughed at his out-of-character reaction, but kept a straight face and shrugged, folding her arms. Then, in her best Goblin King imitation, she raised her chin and grinned. "What a pity."

Jareth glared at her incredulously, then calmed himself, a slight grin tugging at his lips. "I dare say that was an assassination attempt."

"Oh please," Sarah started, dropping her arms to her sides.

Jareth held up a hand to silence her, shaking his head. "You threw a sharp metal utensil at me my dear, your lack of skill and poor aim aside." He leaned against the open fridge door and rested his chin in an open palm. "It seems I have no choice but to punish you."

A cold shiver ran down Sarah's spine. She quickly gathered her thoughts and fought back. "Oh, like _you_ didn't poison me with a peach? And choke me with a snake? And-"

"Now, that's quite enough." Jareth closed the refrigerator door and sidestepped gracefully around the kitchen counter, stopping within only inches of Sarah, who was still backed up against the dining room table. "I believe you've already reprimanded me enough for those minor incidences."

The tone of his voice made Sarah uneasy. "_Minor_-"

"Now, what would be a fitting punishment for the girl who attempted to slay the Goblin King?" He tapped his fingers to his chin again in thought, talking to himself as if Sarah wasn't listening.

Sarah arched back even further as Jareth leaned into her, his face only inches from hers. Glaring into his deep, unearthly eyes, she barely noticed when he placed his palms on the table, effectively trapping her between the table and himself. She flinched as he moved his hands to her hips, nearly jumping onto the table itself. "Hey!" she yelled, squirming beneath him. She froze as he brought his hand to her face, cool leather stroking her skin. She inadvertently began to relax into his movements, shutting out everything else from her mind, until all she heard was their deep breathing in the silence of her apartment. But as he brought his face to hers, Sarah defied her desires and pushed against his chest, swiftly maneuvering around him and out of his grasp.

"Time to go," she said, her voice high strung. This was getting out of hand. She didn't want Jareth thinking that just because she had gotten a bit tipsy last night that he could do whatever he wanted to her. Although, as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, she wouldn't really mind. But it was because of this that she felt the need to retain control over the situation, futile as it may seem. Her logic told her that would do her no good to surrender herself completely; it would give him the wrong idea. 'What idea? The idea that you're attracted to him and that he makes you melt every time he looks at you like that? Would that really be so bad?' she argued with herself. But Sarah knew that revealing such feelings straightforwardly would give him the advantage, and she wouldn't give up her edge if it killed her.

Jareth spun slowly to face her, his glamour back in place, his appearance disorienting Sarah once again. "Very well, Sarah. I'll play by your rules." He smirked and placed a hand on his hip. "For now."

"I don't think you have a choice," she retorted as she tugged on her sneakers. "Unless you'd rather not come."

"And leave you to scour the city by yourself in your weakened state?" He raised his head and regally placed a hand to his chest. "Now, what kind of gentleman would that make me?"

Sarah didn't miss the smirk he flashed. Rolling her eyes she responded, "I don't know Jareth, you tell me."

Once they were in the city and she got some fresh air, Sarah loosened up a bit. No one was even the least suspicious of Jareth thanks to his illusion, but he had warned her that it only lasted for a short while (no more than a couple of hours) due to the aboveground's severe lack of natural magic.

The streets were still wet from the storm last night, and the sky was still blanketed in clouds. It wasn't tourist season, and it was early enough that there weren't a lot of locals out and about, with the weather partially to thank. Sarah and Jareth strolled down the Embarcadero at a leisurely pace, stopping occasionally to glance into a pier building or to look out over the bay. When they were about halfway down the stretch, they stopped along a dock and looked out over the calm waters of the bay.

Sarah rested her arms on the tall wooden railing and inhaled deeply. "I love that smell," she observed.

Jareth glanced at her from the side, but said nothing. They were both silent for a while, and just as Sarah was about to shift to move on, Jareth spoke.

"Do you like it here?" he asked simply without averting his gaze from the scene before him.

Sarah was taken aback by his question, and wasn't sure what to make of it. "Um...what do you mean?"

"I mean what I ask." His voice was unusually quiet, and Sarah had to concentrate to hear him.

"I..." She leaned on the railing again and sighed contemplatively. "I suppose so. I mean, I've only lived here for a few months. And, you know, I miss my family..." she trailed on, not positive if that was the answer he was looking for. Sarah felt that there was a dimension of his question that she wasn't quite grasping. "But I have an internship, and my future's looking pretty bright. ...It's good for me here," she finished.

Jareth nodded slowly, staring unblinkingly at a ship far out in the bay. "That's true."

Sarah shot him a wary glance, but he didn't seem to notice. The awkward silence continued for a while longer until Jareth backed away from the edge of the dock and motioned for them to continue on.

As they walked on, Sarah pointed out what she thought to be interesting sights and monuments, but wondered if she was boring Jareth with all this talk about things that were rather irrelevant to him. He walked beside her, hands in his pockets, and listened attentively to whatever she had to say, insisting she wasn't rambling when she asked. He even asked questions of his own about the locations they passed and inquired further about her explanations.

Eventually they came to North Beach, and Sarah sighed in relief when her favorite coffee shop came into view. They walked in, the smell of freshly ground coffee flooding Sarah's senses. She ordered a cappuccino for herself, and Jareth settled for a simple black coffee. They took a seat by a wall in the back, Sarah sighing contently as she took a sip.

"I wouldn't have taken you for someone who drinks his coffee black," she observed.

"Oh?" Jareth looked up, intrigued, then raised his eyebrows and returned his gaze to his styrofoam cup, lifting it to his mouth.

She shook her head. "You just seem more...flamboyant than that."

He nearly choked at her statement. He recovered quickly though, and set his cup back on the small round table. "Well, maybe there's more to me than meets the eye, hm?"

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Oh, I've already figured that much out, trust me."

The two of them sat there for a while, quietly enjoying their coffees, when Sarah noticed an older Italian couple from across the room staring at them and whispering to each other in words Sarah couldn't understand.

Jareth seemed to notice as well, and as he took a sip from his coffee he nodded toward the couple. "They're talking about us," he whispered with a smirk.

Sarah looked up from her own drink and squinted her eyes at him. "How do you know?"

He answered slowly. "I can understand what they're saying." It was more of a question than a statement.

"You can speak Italian?" she gasped, leaning in toward him.

"Shh," Jareth laughed quietly, eyes darting around the small cafe. "I can speak more than Italian." Usually eager to brag about himself, Jareth seemed uncharacteristically modest, as if trying not to overwhelm her with this information. Before she could inquire further, he predicted her question and answered. "I don't want to go into details here in case anyone overhears us," he whispered. "Let's just say that people like me are granted with a certain knack for foreign tongues, hm?"

Sarah crossed her arms and pouted, wanting to know more. But she was more interested in the couple's conversation. "So what are they saying?" she whispered almost inaudibly.

His smile broadened as he casually leaned in across the table. "They're talking about how sharp we look together."

Sarah pushed his shoulder jokingly. "They are not!" she rasped.

Jareth shrugged and leaned back, crossing his leg over his knee. "_You_ wouldn't know." He grinned deviously, and Sarah knew he was right.

She glanced over at the couple to which he was referring and noticed they were smiling at them. Sarah rolled her eyes, finished off the rest of her coffee, and got up to leave.

Jareth followed her lead, polishing off the last of his own drink, and walked to the door, nodding to the barista on the way out.

"What's got you in such a sour mood?" he asked with a laugh as Sarah walked quickly down the sidewalk. He didn't struggle to keep up with her quickened pace.

"Hm? Oh, nothing," she replied casually, her body language betraying her relaxed tone of voice.

"Nothing?" he repeated suspiciously.

Sarah laughed out loud. "Nothing, tra la la." As she looked up to flash him a smug grin, she had to stop herself from laughing again at his expression of shock and disgust. "Come on, lighten up!" she teased as she nudged his arm.

"I could say the same to you," he replied, nudging her back a bit harder. "You see, this is your predicament, Sarah."

She slowed a bit and looked up at him, confused. "What?"

He smiled, looking ahead of him. "You spend so much time dwelling on the past and where you've already been, that you forget to look ahead-"

Sarah heard his words cut off as she felt her foot catch on a raised curb. But as her body pitched forward, a sickening feeling sinking to the pit of her stomach as she braced for impact, she felt a strong arm wrap about her waist, saving her from what would have been a nasty fall.

"-to watch where you are going." Jareth tipped her upright, his arm still locked around her waist.

Sarah stood there, off balance and breathing heavily, her mind still trying to recover from the close call. It wasn't until her heartbeat had slowed and the adrenaline had cooled that she noticed that Jareth hadn't moved from his position, and that she could very clearly feel him breathing, as she was leaning against him. Her eyes widened and she struggled, but he tightened his grip.

"Are you all right?" he asked sincerely.

"Yeah, I'm fine." As soon as he confirmed that she wasn't too shaken, he released her and she stepped away, legs still trembling slightly. "Thank you," she said quietly as she turned to face him.

He looked down at her, concern still etched on his face. "You're welcome." They exchanged glances, and he motioned for her to continue walking.

They neared the Financial District which, being a Sunday, was completely deserted. She had decided not to think too much about Jareth's words, but her heart wanted to believe him. She had spent so much time thinking about her initial run through the Labyrinth and how Jareth had acted then, that she hadn't truly given him a chance to prove to her that he had changed. To be honest, she hadn't thought it was possible. Or maybe he hadn't changed at all, and she had just been wrong about him for all these years. The possibility of truth in that thought unnerved her.

Sarah looked over at him and noticed that he was looking up at the sky. Apparently sensing her watching him, he glanced down. She didn't move her questioning eyes from his.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" he asked quietly, turning his eyes toward the sky again.

Why was he being so cryptic? "Um...the sky?"

He shook his head. "The architecture."

Sarah opened her mouth slightly to answer. She had never heard anyone from the city comment on how beautiful the _buildings_ were of all things. Usually people were trying too hard to escape the cramped spaces of metropolis to notice. "Yeah, I guess it is," she replied, unsure of what else to say. She put her hands in her pockets, pretending to look around for something.

They walked on in silence for a while longer, and Sarah spoke up, recognizing their surroundings. "Jareth," she started gently, not wishing to startle him. When he looked down at her, she continued. "This is where I work." She motioned to a tall building about a block from them. The scene seemed so different from when she worked on the weekdays. Gone were the bustling crowds and packed streets. She sighed, absorbing the moment. But as she looked ahead, Sarah noticed movement near the high-rise ahead of them.

Not more than ten yards away, someone had stepped out of the swinging glass doors. Sarah felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she got a better view of the individual exiting the building.

It was Nathan. And he was walking towards them.

"Oh, no..." Sarah groaned, looking ahead, then at Jareth, realizing that this could very easily escalate into a hostile situation. Jesus, what were the chances? 'Calm down, Sarah. There's nothing to be worried about. Jareth still has his glamour on, right?' She looked over at him to make sure. 'Affirmative.' She exhaled shakily, but before Jareth had a chance to ask her what was wrong, an all-too-familiar voice cut through the air.

"Hey, Sar, is that you?"

'Crap.' There was nowhere to hide. He had seen her. He had seen Jareth. But no, he didn't know who Jareth was. Sarah smiled to herself. Nathan didn't know who Jareth was. She just needed to play it cool. Say hello, say goodbye, and they could be on their way. Simple.

Sarah laughed uneasily as they approached each other. "Hey Nathan! What brings you out here on a Sunday?" She didn't miss the way he glanced at Jareth as they came within feet of each other.

"I was...going to ask you the same thing," he said slowly, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "I was just finishing up some paperwork that was due tomorrow." His voice seemed to grow cold. "Nothing major." He didn't take his eyes off Jareth.

"Um, that's cool..." She waved her arm in front of him in an attempt to break his trance. "You okay, Nate?" She clenched her jaw, nervous about what he would say next.

Nathan shook his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Uh..." he looked from Jareth to her and back again, raising his eyebrows and prompting her to explain.

Sarah came to her senses and got the hint. "Oh, Nathan, this is Jar...Jared," she said carefully, motioning to the man standing next to her. "And Jared, this is Nathan, my fellow intern. I work with him during the week." Her eyes darted back and forth uneasily between them.

Sarah watched as Jareth slowly extended his hand and forced a smile. "Pleasure to meet you, Nathan," he said, unable to mask the slight tinge of loathing in his voice.

Nathan stood there for a moment, but didn't return the favor. He instead stared blankly at Jareth, an expression that quickly turned into a sneer as he turned to face Sarah.

"Nice," he said curtly, ignoring the fact that Jareth had extended his hand to him at all. When Sarah looked at him blankly, he continued. "Didn't tell me you had a boyfriend, Williams."

The sudden change in his tone and his use of her last name caught her by surprise. "Wait a minute, he's not-"

"You don't have to lie to me to spare my feelings. It's obvious that you two are together. It's written all over your face."

"I beg your pardon?" Jareth interrupted scathingly, struggling to retain his cool, humanistic façade.

Nathan nodded at him and scoffed. "Oh, so you like the foreign type, do you? Should have known you'd be into the whole British thing." His harsh, uncharacteristic words made Sarah flinch.

"Wait, Nathan, you don't understand..." Sarah sputtered desperately, looking to Jareth and then back at Nathan. What happened to the sweet guy she talked to at work every day? The guy who covered for her when she got sick, the guy who had asked her out for a friendly cup of coffee? Had he really been this serious about her?

"Oh, trust me, it's crystal clear," he replied scathingly, glaring at Jareth.

Just as Sarah was about to respond, she paused for a moment and looked up at Jareth, but stopped dead when she saw the expression on his face.

Time seemed to slow down. Sarah watched in horror as the Goblin King lunged forward and took her coworker by the collar, tightening his fists in Nathan's shirt and forcefully dragging the helpless man toward him.

"Is it really?" he growled. His appearance still matched that of a human's, but his stance was almost predatory, and Sarah wouldn't be fooled for a second that the man standing before her was anything but from another dimension.

"Real great guy, Sar!" he managed, nearly laughing, but was silenced as Jareth tightened his grip.

As she watched this scene unfold before her, about to step in, she stopped as something about the atmosphere began to change. When she saw the progressing wide-eyed horror on Nathan's face, she could guess at what was happening. Her fears were confirmed when she noticed that Jareth's hair seemed to be growing longer in the back, his platinum locks wild as if willed by his sudden rage. That familiar electricity that pulsed around him returned with a passion, and she knew that the spell he had cast on himself earlier was rapidly wearing off.

"Her name," he spat, another growl ripping from his throat, "is _Sarah_." He released Sarah's coworker with such force that he stumbled backwards, falling onto the hard concrete with a thud. Before her now stood the full-fledged Goblin King, with no magic spells to hide his true form from the world around him.

Sarah gasped, looking around to see if anyone was watching before darting forward to help Nathan. She was stopped by Jareth, however, and was pulled into him, trapped against his form by his steel grip.

"What the _hell_?" Nathan yelled, his voice cracking. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Jareth since his fall, and scrambled backwards, attempting unsuccessfully to rise to his feet.

Sarah struggled in Jareth's arms, trying to get at her coworker who now sat shaking on the ground. She didn't know what she would do if she got to him. Apologize? For what, her psychotic magical bodyguard? But Jareth held her fast, glaring with disdain at this man he had only just met. She reached out to Nathan, apologetic tears in her eyes, but as she was about to call out to him, she felt Jareth pull her closer, dragging her from the middle of the sidewalk while whispering something she couldn't comprehend.

Suddenly, she felt the streets begin to close in around her, and watched as Nathan began to disappear from her field of vision. She felt as if she was being compressed, her only consolation being the warmth of Jareth's chest against her back.

It was over as soon as it started, and Jareth roughly let her go. Sarah looked around and noticed that wherever they were, it certainly wasn't the Financial District. In fact, it looked very much like Golden Gate Park. As she caught her breath from what obviously was some form of teleportation, she decided that they were _definitely_ in Golden Gate Park, in a more secluded area by a bridge under which a river flowed. They were alone.

She spun around to face him, head still spinning from transporting halfway across San Francisco. "What the hell was that, Jareth?" She waved her arms at him exasperatedly. "You can't just go around doing that to people! What do you think-"

She was cut short as he gripped her arms and pushed her toward a nearby tree. "You cannot expect me to stand idle and allow someone to speak to you that way!" There was an unreadable emotion deep in his eyes, perhaps pain, perhaps fear; Sarah couldn't be sure. "Sarah, have you given that man permission to court you?" His voice was strained.

She didn't understand. "Have I _what_?" She felt his fingers begin to dig into her upper arms and she flinched. That's what this was all about? "No, what are you talking about? I only know him from work!"

His grip loosened, but his jaw remained clenched. "He certainly didn't seem like just _anyone_ from work."

She was taken aback. "What kind of person do you think I am? I agreed to have _coffee_ with him, Jareth. Coffee! That's it. I mean, I knew he was interested in me but-" Sarah paused, exasperated. "Why do you even care?"

His patience was thinning, his voice rapidly escalating in volume and intensity. "Because, _Sarah_," he snapped, "you are _mine_, and I will not allow another to have you!"

His words echoed in Sarah's head, and in the woods around them. "What..." She stared past him, eyes wide and unfocused.

He seemed to realize his mistake, but it was too late. What's said was said; there was no taking it back. "Sarah..." He extended his arm toward her, expression softening.

"Don't touch me!" she retorted, pulling her arms to her chest. How could he say something like that? "You think I _belong_ to you? Why, because you _kissed_ me? No one _owns_ me, Jareth, and you're sick if you think otherwise."

"You don't understand." His speech quickened, and he seemed almost panicked.

"Oh? What _don't_ I understand?" She crossed her arms impatiently. "_Do_ explain."

He sighed heavily, knowing that it was not the time and place to talk about this, but also knowing he would not convince her unless he explained himself in full. "When...when I was poisoned by iron, last week, you told me about a crystal you found after you wished for me to be able to use magic again. Do you remember?" He spoke as if pressed for time.

Sarah nodded and rolled her eyes. What did this have to do with anything?

"I predict...no, I am nearly positive," he continued, "that when you...said the final words, last time..." he seemed to hesitate, trying to find the right way to say whatever it was he was trying to get across.

"Go on..." Sarah prompted hesitantly, now not completely sure she wanted him to.

"I believe...a fragment of my magic found its way to you, as a sort of defense mechanism; a way to save myself when I was in a weakened state. I..." he wiped his face with a gloved hand and turned away from her.

Sarah froze. Is that why she had been able to heal him? And the reason why he was unable to deny granting her wish? Sarah stood there, unable to absorb what he was telling her. "That doesn't make sense. You're saying I have-"

"Yes," he sighed regretfully. "You have an amount of my magic trapped within you. Do you see why I cannot allow another to claim you?" There was a pain in his eyes unlike any Sarah had ever seen. But she was too distracted with this new information to dwell on it.

"Well how do I get rid of it?" She clawed at her chest, suddenly horrified. How much power did this give Jareth over _her_? "Take it back!" she cried.

"Sarah, it's not that simple," he hesitated, glancing around to ensure no one was watching.

"Not that-" her voice caught, a lump forming in her throat. "How long have you known about this?"

"I..." he glanced down, placing a hand on the back of his neck. "I've suspected it to be the case for a while. My suspicions were confirmed when...well Sarah, you must have noticed the connection between us!"

Her arms slowly dropped limp to her sides as memories from last night came flooding back. Had none of it been real? "I see," she began slowly. 'Don't cry Sarah, don't cry.' His feelings hadn't been for her. They had been because of some connection that wasn't even supposed to exist in the first place. He was an immortal fae king. She was an insignificant mortal girl, barely a blip on the radar. An object, a vessel, a tool, and nothing more. Why couldn't she have seen this coming? "I guess it makes sense," she choked, her voice expressing her thoughts. "After all, what other reason would someone like you have for having relations with someone like me?" She laughed hysterically, trying to hide the tears she knew threatened to fall at any second. How foolish she had been. "Well then, I suppose it would only be decent of me to put you out of your misery."

He paused at her words, his expression changing into one of confusion. "Sarah, what are you talking about?"

"I wish..."

"Wait!" He threw his arm in front of her, painfully similar to the scene from ten years past when she had rejected him outright.

"I wish that the Goblin King would return to his kingdom, and that he would have no obligation...to fulfill my wishes anymore." As she said the words, her lower lip quivered and a tear fell down her cheek in betrayal.

He stared at her in disbelief and whispered in anguish, "Sarah, what have you done?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**I apologize for the slight delay on this one. I kind of, um, moved to Japan. And school started for me this week. If that's not a good excuse than nothing is. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible (it's already mostly written), but I'm super jet lagged and still trying to adjust to my new schedule. Thank you for understanding! Please review and tell me what you think!**


	11. Resolution

**Chapter 11 - Resolution**

He was gone.

He was gone and it had been she who had sent him away. Sarah stared blankly at the spot where Jareth had stood just seconds earlier. There was no glitter, nothing to remind her that he had ever been there at all. Just the dew-kissed grass of Golden Gate Park and the unbearable silence as tears began to stream down her face. She knelt on the grass for what seemed like hours, crying silently, grateful that she was in a relatively secluded area.

She was nothing to him. Why was she so upset about it? It wasn't like he had ever shown affection for her in the past. Well, besides the past couple of days. Sarah broke into sobs again at the thought. How could none of it have been real? Hadn't he said something about a connection between them? Or had that only been the magic? Magic or not, Sarah knew in her heart that she _had_ felt something for Jareth, and now she would never know what that something was and what it might have become.

The days passed slowly. Sarah's mind was in a fog; she couldn't stop thinking about him. Where had he gone? What was he doing? What exactly had her wish done? Their time together over the past week had been almost surreal, and just as she thought they had been getting to know each other, it was over, just like that: no goodbyes, no apologies. Hadn't it all been a lie anyway? Was taking her to dinner Jareth's way of somehow coaxing his magic from her? Or was it perhaps an attempt to keep her with him, and by extension retain what he had lost? Her mind was whirring with possibilities, but the truth was, she didn't and probably would never know the answer.

Work was torture. Nathan didn't show for a couple of days after their run-in on Sunday, and when he did appear sometime later that week, Sarah barely noticed that he completely ignored her, only giving her dirty, confused looks whenever their eyes happened to meet. She had meant to apologize several times, but every time she opened her mouth to initiate a conversation, she found that she just didn't have the heart to say anything. Every night she went home to her apartment, the blankets on the couch and articles of scattered clothing left untouched since Sunday morning. A part of Sarah seemed to die inside. Whether its cause was the fact that Jareth was gone or that she knew he had never felt anything more than surface feelings for her, she didn't know, and honestly didn't care to search her heart for the answer.

Even more difficult than day to day functions were her sleepless nights, as she was awoken constantly by horrific nightmares. Her wish replayed over and over in her mind, the fact that she had wished him away, the mighty Goblin King, with a spur of the moment reaction to his words. Perhaps it would have been better if they had talked it out, but there wasn't any changing that now. She was wrought with guilt, but what difference would it have made? He had made his intentions clear by explaining that he needed her for the magic she possessed.

Amidst all of this inner turmoil, Sarah tried to move on with her life just as she had after her defeat of the Goblin King and his labyrinth ten years ago. She could do it once, so she figured she could do it again. Only this time, she had consciously known what her words were capable of. She had seen the look of desperation on his face. This time, Sarah hadn't been trying to save her baby brother. She had been trying to save herself.

Sarah felt a tear roll down her cheek and watched as it silently fell upon her failed engineering designs. Tonight wasn't as bad as some. Sometimes the emotions would hit her like a tidal wave, threatening to pull her back in with the riptide, and she could only speculate as to whether this had to do with the involuntary connection between Jareth and herself. The sadness was overwhelming, the hatred torturous, and the more Sarah tried to stop the foreign emotions from crashing over her, the more relentless and powerful they became until it reached the point she didn't think she could stand it. Worst of all, on the infrequent occasion Sarah would summon enough courage to call his name, there was no reply. She hadn't expected there to be. After all, her wish had finalized the situation, and now, due to her own rash actions, she would never see Jareth again.

Early Saturday morning, Sarah made up her mind. She wasn't sure exactly what pulled her back to the bridge over the river in Golden Gate Park. She just felt like she needed to be there, as if some supernatural force was guiding her. She had no qualms besides the emotions she expected the scenery to dredge up, her mind already in a haze.

She walked onto the very center of the bridge, too emotionally drained to express her feelings.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah resolutely placed her hands on its cool stone wall, looking around to make sure no one was listening. "I wish," she began, ever so softly. "I wish to see the Goblin King." The wind seemed to pick up, but the longer Sarah waited, the more she realized that the change in the weather was just her imagination.

"I wish the Goblin King would appear," she stated with more resolve. Still no response. Sarah's lip began to quiver, and she suddenly found herself grateful that she was leaning against the bridge for support. 'Of course he won't answer me,' she thought dejectedly to herself. After all, she had more or less wished for his freedom. Why should her summoning him be different from any other wish? He probably wanted nothing to do with her.

But as she looked over the crystalline waters, a thought struck Sarah. If she had part of the Goblin King's magic within her, why couldn't she use magic too? True, she knew nothing about the basics of spell casting, but maybe, just maybe...

She raised her voice and called out over the river, "I wish to be taken to the Goblin King!" Who she was wishing _to_ she wasn't at all certain. But perhaps if she wished upon herself rather than Jareth, the spell might have a better chance of coming to fruition. She waited, eyes on the horizon, but still nothing changed. Nearly collapsing in surrender, Sarah leaned over and placed her head in her arms that rested on the cold stone of the bridge. How had she been so blind as to not foresee the consequences of her actions? Her "right words" were always the wrong words, or maybe she just didn't have a clue. She had repeated the same mistake she committed ten years ago, and she couldn't even set things right. Sarah hit her fist against the stone, what she was certain would bruise later. But as she lifted her head slowly, she saw through her blurry eyes something glisten in the river below.

At first what she thought to be an optical illusion, Sarah quickly realized what she was staring at. In the clear water below her, surrounded by various coins likely thrown into the water by children, lay a crystal, so perfectly spherical and clear that she almost missed it. Gasping, she ran along the bridge and to the bank of the river, her legs shaking terribly.

'Don't get your hopes up, Sarah,' she told herself. But it was too late. What she had seen was a glimmer of hope, no matter how trivial it seemed. Right now, that crystal, identical to the one she had accidentally conjured to heal Jareth, was her entire world. She didn't hesitate as her feet left the shore and she stepped into the shallow water, pausing only slightly as the frigid chill hit her legs.

Her jeans were soaked through by the time she made it to the place where she had seen the crystal from the bridge. Shivering, Sarah bent down in the waist-deep water and felt around with her hands, kicking up dirt and sand from the riverbed, desperate to feel the smooth surface of the object she searched for. When her fingertips brushed its slippery surface, she smiled for the first time in days. But as she moved to draw it out of the water, a falling sensation gripped her, and loosing her footing, Sarah fell backwards into the icy water.

When she came up, disoriented and gasping for breath, Sarah did her best to regain her footing in the strong current, wiping her hair out of her face. 'Wait,' she thought, shivering. Although the water flowed rather swiftly, there was never enough of a current to sweep her away like the river just had. As she regained her bearings, Sarah moved her wet hair behind her ears and took in her surroundings.

Where she stood still looked very much like Golden Gate Park, but somehow, it was different. There was grass, trees, and the entire area looked very much like a park. There was even a stone bridge over the river she was standing in. A smile spread over her features. She knew that crude masonry anywhere. 'Goblins!' She was in the Underground.

Sarah felt a rush of adrenaline as she waded toward the bank of the river, crystal still in hand. She came out drenched and shaking, the water in this river apparently no warmer than it had been in San Francisco. She rested on her hands and knees on the soft bank just for a moment before continuing on.

Glancing around, Sarah immediately felt her spirits drop as she realized she had no idea where she was. She was alone in the woods of the Underground, which very likely were not in the Labyrinth, considering that she hadn't seen anything so pristine and elaborate during her last visit. But she pressed on nonetheless, the fact that she had brought herself here giving her a renewed confidence.

She smiled reminiscently to herself as she passed the old stone bridge that looked just as unstable as the one that had collapsed under her years ago, but sobered as she thought of the reason she had come here. Even if she found Jareth, would he be angry with her? Would the damage she wrought be irrevocable? She decided not to think on it as she pressed on through the thick brush of the woods.

Sarah found it strange that, besides the greenery, she had seen no forms of life, even for the short duration she had been in the Underground. She didn't hear or see any birds, let alone the labyrinthine creatures she had come to expect. She continued, albeit warily, and exited the thicket only to again find herself along the river's shore. She was going in circles. Frustrated, Sarah heaved a sigh, still shivering in her wet clothes. 'Why would you send me here to get lost in the woods?' she thought, directed at whatever unknown magical force had transported her between worlds. As soon as she was about to collapse on the river bank and give up hope, Sarah saw something she did not expect.

Several yards away, on the grassy bank near a tree, lay the Goblin King.

Stunned, Sarah was hit with a wave of emotions as she looked upon his seemingly lifeless form. He looked like he was injured, and she ran over to him, tears again forming in her eyes.

"Jareth!" she called as she collapsed beside him on the damp grass. She rolled him onto his back, and found his breathing to be shallow. "Can you hear me?" she pressed desperately. He didn't move. She wasn't about to have come all this way to find him comatose. She reached for his hand and brought it close to her chest, holding it tightly. When he still showed no signs of stirring, she moved to take the glove off his hand. "God damn it, Jareth!" she choked as her skin touched his, grasping his bare hand in her own.

With a sudden start, Jareth gasped, taking in a deep, shuddering breath, his eyes darting around for the source of whatever was touching him. Sarah gripped his hand tightly as his mismatched eyes locked with hers. "...Sarah?"

She nodded slowly, trying to choke back a sob. "I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I didn't know what would happen..."

"You wished me away," he said almost as a question, his eyes searching her face for an answer.

At this Sarah broke down again, balling her fists in his shirt and placing her damp forehead to his chest. "I'm sorry!" She began speaking quickly. "I called for you but you didn't come, and I didn't know what to do, so I went to the bridge and I found a crystal like the one I found before and-"

"You came to look for me?" he asked softly, eyes full of disbelief.

Sarah faltered, letting go of his hand. "Um...well..." She didn't want to admit how she felt about him if he didn't feel the same. "Look Jareth," she said, becoming serious and inching back, wiping the tears from her face. "I don't like having my feelings toyed with." She glanced up at him, and continued when she saw the bewilderment on his face. "I understand..." she began again, ignoring the lump in her throat. "I understand that you have a kingdom to run, and that you need magic to do it. But I'm only asking..." she took a deep breath. "I'm only asking not to be treated as an object. I'll help you as much as I can, but I don't want you to lie to me or...or make me think you feel things for me that you don't."

She waited for him to respond, eyes focusing on the droplets of dew on the grass surrounding them.

She felt him shift beside her and saw him sit up, confusion in his eyes and a pained expression on his fair visage. "Sarah," he began, bringing his bare hand to her face.

She flinched away. "Don't start," she said scathingly. "I don't need you to-" She was startled as she felt him place his pale finger on her lips, and brought her eyes to meet his.

"I do." His voice was just above a whisper, his face now just inches away from hers. There was a sincere pain in his eyes that she had never seen before, and she trembled at his touch. "Are you so blind, Sarah?" he continued. "I have never thought of you as expendable, and certainly never as an 'object.' Have I not proven this much to you?"

She looked down, her wet hair falling in front of her shoulders. "I don't know, Jareth. You're such a mystery. I barely even know _what_ you are, let alone if I can trust you or know when you're telling the truth." She didn't want to admit it, but it was true. How could she trust him when his motives were unclear? And how could she ever know what his motives were as long as she retained a portion of his magic?

"Are you so easily unconvinced?" he asked, pain in his voice. He then sat up completely, and lifted her chin until her eyes unwillingly met his. "What ever gave you the idea that I do not care for you? Perhaps I behaved rashly; I was unaware that you would react as you did." He glanced down for a moment, but just as soon brought his eyes back to hers, flooded with a deep, unreadable emotion. "But believe me when I tell you that there is no greater truth I have ever spoken than this. I love you, Sarah Williams, and I am quite certain that no one can convince me otherwise."

Sarah stilled, her eyes still locked with his, and opened her mouth to speak. "I..." Somehow she knew he was telling the truth. The emotion in his voice was raw, and she knew it was impossible for even the Goblin King to make such a convincing false claim. She felt his hands begin to tense within hers as he awaited a response. Sarah knew her answer.

She looked down at their joined hands, then back up at his face, which now bore a frown of concern as if the next words she spoke had the potential to utterly destroy his very being. "I think I've always loved you, Jareth," she smiled, tears forming again in her eyes. "I've just been too stubborn to see it." She laughed weakly at herself as she let go of his hands. "I suppose I was just always afraid that you weren't real...that you were just a fragment of my dreams. I-"

She was cut off as Jareth shifted his hands to grip her arms and came down on her in a bruising, passionate kiss.

Her heart swelled as he deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing her gently into the grass. She brought her arms around his neck and tangled her fingers in his wispy hair, drawing him in as if he could never be close enough. She cursed herself for not being able to see it, for not giving him a chance to explain before she wished him away. Admittedly, it wasn't as if she had made her own feelings clear, but at this point, she didn't care. He knew now and that's all that mattered.

When they broke away from each other, Sarah turned her head to the side, and Jareth leaned over her, claiming her neck. He left trails of kisses along her jawbone until he came to her ear and ran his tongue along its edge, causing Sarah to shudder slightly. He drew himself up on his arms and gazed at her, positively beaming.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" she questioned, slightly out of breath.

"And risk you rejecting me again?" he asked teasingly. "I wouldn't have been able to withstand it a second time."

Sarah frowned. "Then how did you know..."

His self-assured smirk made a reappearance. "I knew that someone who hated me unconditionally wouldn't breach the boundaries between worlds to come looking for me out of concern for my well-being."

She smiled and shrugged, then grasped his shirt and pulled him down to her for a kiss of her own. She took delight in every sensation, from Jareth's initial shudder to their gasping breaths. But just then a thought struck Sarah, and lord knew that she would think of nothing else until it was answered. "Wait," she said distractedly, shifting away from the man on top of her who was now doing gloriously wonderful things to her neck.

"What is it _now_," he moaned into her shoulder, his long blond hair tickling her cheek.

She pushed against him slightly, and as much as Jareth resisted, brought herself up into a sitting position. "What about your magic?"

Sighing, Jareth moved toward her again and ground his teeth, his face slightly flushed. "Can you never just enjoy the moment and leave everything else well enough alone?"

She pushed a hand against his shoulder. "It's important, Jareth. I need to know."

He rolled his eyes and placed his palms on his forehead, attempting to clear his mind. He looked up and smiled at her coyly. "You _know_ the right words, Sarah."

She gazed back at his smug expression, puzzled. "What are you talking about? Apparently I _don't_ know the right words, if the past few instances are any indication." She crossed her arms indignantly.

"But you _do_ know the right words, precious," he answered in a low whisper. "Think, Sarah. You are the only one who can reverse what has been done." He gazed at her seriously and placed a hand on her knee.

She shivered at his use of her pet name. She was the only one who knew? How could that be? She closed her eyes, searching deep within herself for the answer. How was she supposed to know what the right words were? She didn't have a book this time to instruct her in what to say. "Jareth, I-"

"_Think_," he replied adamantly, tightening his grip on her knee.

Sarah took a deep breath and closed her eyes, attempting to clear thoughts, easier said than done given the situation.

_"You have no power over me."_

The words from _The Labyrinth_ flooded her mind. 'But that's not right!' she argued with herself. 'It can't be right...but it's true, isn't it? ...Is it?' She placed her hands on the sides of her head, and felt Jareth's reassuring yet nervous grip on her begin to tighten. 'It _is_ true,' she decided. 'But it's not the entire truth.' Sarah opened her eyes and met Jareth's with a smile.

He frowned at her, eyebrows drawn together, but nodded in reassurance.

Straightening her posture, Sarah placed her hands on Jareth's shoulders and immediately felt him tense. "Jareth," she began, her voice unwavering. "You have no power over me."

He gaped at her in shock, fear trapping his features. "Sarah, what-"

She held up a finger to silence him. "But nor do I have power over you." She smiled broadly, then shrugged. "Don't you think it's about time we put an end to this senseless power struggle?"

He stared at her blankly for a moment before a smile of his own began to spread across his face.

Suddenly, Sarah felt something happen to the air between them. Heat began to build in her chest until she felt that it was about to explode, and the atmosphere began exuding the static sensation that had become familiar whenever she was around Jareth. "What's-" She stopped as something began to materialize between them, the heat in her chest dissipating as soon as it had begun. Extending her hands in front of her, she felt the smooth surface of a transparent orb, but rather than settling in her palm, it floated above her hand as Jareth's crystals always seemed to. She held it out to him out of instinct, unaware of what to do.

Jareth looked from the crystal to Sarah, his expression serious. "You offer this to me freely, Sarah Williams, Champion of the Labyrinth?"

She saw no betrayal in his eyes. Jareth deserved what was rightfully his. She nodded, and Jareth extended his hand, the crystal almost magnetically drawn to him. As soon as his fingers came into contact with the orb, it released a blast of something between wind and magic, as if meaning to deter Jareth from accepting it. Determination in his icy eyes, he wrapped his tense, pale hand around the crystal, and when he waved his hand, it disappeared as if it had never appeared in the first place.

Sarah looked at him silently for an explanation, but he just smiled. "Thank you, dearest," he chimed, then leaned in closer to her. "I knew you could do it," he whispered before bringing his lips to her forehead for a chaste kiss.

"Do what?" she gaped in disbelief, unsure of exactly what had just ensued.

"Allow me to reclaim my magic from you, silly girl," he chided, returning to her neck. "Although you still didn't give me any power over you," he mused, frowning. "Which I don't _entirely_ mind, as I expected no less from you." He hummed in contentment at her short gasps as he worked his way across her collarbone. "Though I somehow doubt that's the case."

"So wait," Sarah started, eliciting another groan of frustration from Jareth. She struggled with her words, her mind fogging over as Jareth did magical things to her skin. "It's over? Just like that?"

He drew back to meet her deep green eyes. "I'm not sure if that's how I would put it, but yes, I have recovered the magic you took from me, if that is what you are asking. But in reality, Sarah, it's only just beginning." He gave her a toothy smirk and bent down to overwhelm her in a passionate kiss.

Realizing that Jareth still cared for her, even after she had returned what he had lost, sent Sarah's heart cartwheeling as she began to kiss back, working her lips against his. Grabbing his torso, she pushed against him, feeling him relent as she pushed his back to the grass, effectively trapping him beneath her. He chuckled as they broke apart, then caught her by surprise as he pulled her down to him, their bodies flush against each other. Sarah blushed furiously, widening the smirk on Jareth's face. But as he took her dark tresses in his hand to bring her face closer to his, he made a realization.

"You're soaking wet!" he laughed.

"You just noticed?" Sarah asked incredulously, drawing herself up on her arms.

"What on earth happened to you?" He attempted unsuccessfully to conceal his laughter.

She looked away, placing her hair behind her ear. "I kind of...fell into a river."

Jareth let out a full-throated laugh at this information, causing Sarah's face to heat more as she drew herself off of him.

"It's not funny!" she said, crossing her arms. "I did it to save you, I'll have you know." It wasn't until he had pointed it out that she realized she was still shivering.

"By the gods, I love you, Sarah," he said lightheartedly with a soft smile, gazing into her eyes. "What ever am I to do with you?"

His words caused her to turn away and draw her knees up to her chest in embarrassment. The way he looked at her was no less than unnerving. She heard him shift and rise to his feet, but as he did so, she noticed with concern that he was wavering slightly. He extended a hand and lifted her to her feet, and when Sarah finally took a moment to take in his appearance, she cocked her head in concern. He looked battered, and while only a minor detail when she assumed his life to be at stake, she noticed that he was also wearing the same aboveground clothes he had worn when she had last seen him.

"How long have you been here?" she asked, eyebrows drawn.

Jareth looked at her nervously and shrugged. "Well...since I left the aboveground." He motioned to himself, trying to make light of the situation.

Sarah gasped and placed a hand to her mouth. "But it's been nearly a week!"

Jareth returned her worried expression with a pained smile. "Time passes more slowly in the Underground. I thought you would have remembered."

He was right. She had remembered spending double the time in the Labyrinth than had actually passed in the aboveground when she last challenged the maze. Still, it didn't make his plight any less dreadful. Had he just been lying here this entire time?

"Come on," Jareth said, interrupting her thoughts. "Let's get you into something dry before you catch cold. I'm afraid I don't have enough power yet to transport you back to the aboveground, so we'll just have to make due." He smirked deviously at Sarah's bewildered expression. He playfully grabbed her by the waist and drew her against him, startling her. "Now, you _must_ stop moving my dear, however excited you may be."

She stilled at his words, now unsure if her face could honestly turn a brighter shade of red. Suddenly, she saw him make a sweeping motion with his arm, and the woods around them seemed to collapse in on themselves, revealing the fine interior of a stone-walled room. Sarah's head spun, her knees giving out on her, but Jareth held her tightly around the waist. Once he made sure she was fine to walk, he released her and stepped away.

Sarah figured the room they had been transported to must have been a room in the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, but she saw no signs of goblins or filth anywhere like she had remembered. The room was simple, but sophisticated. They stood on a hardwood floor, and Sarah noticed a bookshelf in the corner and a large four-poster bed against the wall in the center of the room. She looked at Jareth in confusion, and he seemed to know what she was thinking.

"A guest room," he said, confirming her suspicions, then hesitated. "I've picked up some better habits since your last visit."

She crossed her arms and looked up at him. "Yeah, or bogged a few more goblins."

He chuckled softly. "Too perceptive, my dear. Now, let's get you out of those clothes, hm?"

Sarah spun around, shocked, and raised her hand to strike him.

Jareth avoided her open palm by ducking and laughed. "I didn't mean it like that, you know it. Now we know what's on _your_ mind, don't we?"

Sarah's face turned several shades of red before settling on what she assumed to be a deep crimson. Folding her arms and straightening her posture, she made a recovery by saying in her very best Goblin King accent, "Oh, you didn't?" She couldn't help but crack a smile at Jareth's flustered reaction.

"Oh, come here you infuriating woman!" He lunged for her and grabbed her waist, causing Sarah to squeal in surprise.

She found herself pressed against his torso in a highly compromising position, and began to struggle to break free before she lost herself to him completely.

"Now," he began, "you can cooperate with me until I've rested enough to transport you back to the aboveground, or you can do things the hard way. And I can assure you," he licked his lips, "you don't want to do things the hard way." He pressed against her, causing her to shudder and bite back a moan. "Or maybe you do," he grinned smugly.

She let out a whimper and pushed him gently off of her, not certain if she was shivering due to his advancements or her damp clothes.

Sarah decided on the former option, and Jareth exited the room and waited for her to get dressed after pointing her in the direction of the wardrobe. "You'll find clothes in there."

A while later, Jareth came back into the room after letting Sarah change. She noticed he had changed himself and looked refreshed, now wearing more traditional black breeches and poet shirt. Sarah had found some similar clothes in her closet, which were all a bit too tight for her liking, but at least they were dry.

"Underground fashion is quite fetching on you," he commented a bit bluntly as he took in her figure.

Sarah blushed and bowed her head. She decided to change the subject. "Jareth..." she began slowly. She didn't want to bring this up considering how well everything was going, but she needed clarification before she delved too deeply into any kind of relationship. "I'm not sure exactly what it is you want from me." She looked up at him sheepishly, only to find that he had stepped closer to her from across the room, concern etched on his features.

"What is unclear?" he asked, seemingly more comfortable now that he was on his home turf.

Sarah wrung her hands together in front of her. "It's just that...you can use magic, and I-"

"And you what?" he interrupted.

"And I can't." She shrugged. What had he expected her to say?

"Of course you can," he replied nonchalantly.

"...Wait, what?"

He sighed. "With the proper training, as long as you are in the Underground, there is no reason you would not be able to learn at least basic spells."

Sarah gaped. Her? Able to use magic? The thought made her giddy. But she sobered herself as she thought about what he was saying. He hinted at implications that she wasn't sure she was partial to. "But Jareth you're not..." she looked down and motioned at him weakly. There was no way she would ever be able to live up to his expectations.

"I'm not what, Sarah?" He was close to her now, close enough that she could smell his intoxicating scent. He brought his hand to her face and brushed her hair behind her ear. "Not _human_?" She heard the loathing in his voice as he said the word. "Forgive me for my selfishness Sarah, but no human is worthy of you." He flashed his sharp teeth as he brushed his fingers along her jawline, causing her to look up.

She blushed at his comment. "But don't you see?" she continued exasperatedly. "That brings up another whole slew of problems! You're...going to live..." she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Time runs slower in the Underground, Sarah. And besides," he said mischievously, wiping a tear that had formed in the crease of her eye, "there are ways around that."

Sarah gazed up at him, hopeful.

"Must you worry about these things now, Sarah? Can you not just wait and receive the answers as they come to you?"

"But..."

"You ask me what I want from you. The truth is, I want _everything_ from you." He placed a hand on her cheek, soothing her worried expression. "But this time, I ask for _nothing_. I offer myself freely to you; you may choose whether to accept or decline. I would very much like to be friends with you, Sarah Williams." He smiled genuinely, all traces of the Goblin King erased from his features; only Jareth remained.

She trembled under his touch. She knew what she wanted. What she had always wanted. "Only friends?" she laughed uneasily.

Jareth looked to the ceiling, weighing his options. He gazed down at her with those otherworldly eyes and looked her up and down wolfishly, running her hair through his fingers. "Well, perhaps not _only_ friends." He smiled playfully and tilted his head to the side, examining her. "No, definitely not."

As he brought his mouth down to hers, Sarah placed her arms on his shoulders, running her own fingers through his silky hair. Liquid heat pooled in her stomach as Jareth's fingers inched down the backs of her thighs, causing her to draw in a sharp breath. They stood embracing each other for what to Sarah could have lasted a blissful eternity, neither one of them fighting for dominance but neither completely surrendering to the other. "So when will I see you?" she asked in a whisper, short of breath as they broke apart.

Drawing her closer to his lean frame, Jareth ran his hands roughly up her torso and mumbled, "I'm right here."

Sarah struggled with her words, her mind in a haze and her body enjoying far too much the movements of Jareth's talented hands. "No, I mean after I go back."

He growled, either out of lust or frustration, obviously wishing to move onto less mundane things than discussing a visiting schedule. "You mean until you realize that you'd be much better off living _here_?" He leaned back and smirked, wetting his lips. "It's difficult to say." He shrugged. "Every couple of weeks, every couple of months?" He smiled at her appalled reaction.

"Every couple of _months_?" She gripped his arms firmly and looked him in the eye. "It better be more often than that if you want to maintain any kind of relationship with _me_."

"I _do_ have responsibilities, you know." He loosened his grip on her and motioned around the room.

Sarah huffed and crossed her arms. "But _months_? That's _forever_, Jareth."

He laughed aloud at her words, eyes glistening, and drew her into his powerful embrace. "Not long at all."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**Thank you everyone for supporting me through the process of writing my first fan fiction! Your reviews have all meant so much to me, and I have taken every one to heart. I hope you enjoyed the story, and I definitely plan on writing more. I would love to hear from those of you who haven't reviewed about what you thought of the entire fanfic so I can hear your thoughts and use your feedback to improve my writing in the future.**

**I'm considering writing an epilogue, hence why I am not yet marking the story as "complete." I'd like to hear some feedback before I do so, though. I probably already know the answer, but as readers, what do you think? Should I leave it as is, or should I wrap it up with some fluff for our favorite couple? ;)**


	12. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Sarah, you're being ridiculous."

Sarah glanced up from her designs that lay strewn across her desk to the Goblin King, who was sprawled lazily on her bed in jeans and a button-up shirt. "I am _not_. I don't bother you when _you're_ busy, do I?" She rolled her eyes at the rhetorical question and returned to work, now highly distracted by the fae trying so hard to bring her attention elsewhere.

"Not intentionally, precious." He shifted so he was lying on his stomach, chin playfully propped up on his hands.

"I can't _help_ being the subject of your thoughts, Jareth. Unlike a certain _someone_." She gave him a sideways glance and squinted her eyes at him.

It had been two months since their initial agreement to see each other (however informal and untraditional it may have been), but in all honesty, neither of them had gotten to see the other as much as they would have liked. Jareth had to catch up on the tremendous amount of work he had missed during his time aboveground, and Sarah was kept busy at work. Usually, Jareth barely had enough time to drop by for a hello or quick dinner. Sarah had to admit that she missed the amount of time they used to spend together, but duty called, and she wasn't about to give up her hard-earned career for some extra time with the Goblin King. 'No matter how awfully tempting that may be,' her inner thoughts added.

And yet here he was, as temptingly gorgeous as always, strewn across her bed as if to say "do what you will with me." He had come to ask her on a date _tonight_, about which Sarah was immediately up in arms, as she had had no prior warning and had a mound of work to complete before tomorrow.

"You need to learn to be more flexible, dearest." He smirked toothily, gazing at her relentlessly with those icy, mismatched eyes.

"Oh, _I_ need to be more flexible," she retorted as she scribbled some notes down on an index card. "A few hours notice wouldn't have killed you?"

Jareth shrugged. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Sure you did," she scoffed. "Look, I'm sorry Jareth." She spun around in her chair to face him. She almost choked at what she was about to say next as she took in his lithe and subtly muscular figure. "Tonight's just not a good time for me."

His mouth turned downward into a slight frown, but Sarah knew it was a ruse. "Well, that's quite unfortunate." As he finished his sentence his frown broke into a faint smirk, and Sarah knew that he was brewing trouble under that unruly mane of his.

"_What_, Jareth," she growled impatiently, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.

Sarah heard him shift and stand from his position on her bed as she turned back to her desk, pretending to concentrate. "What if you didn't have all of this work due in a few hours, hm? Then would you come with me?" His voice was like liquid chocolate and made Sarah's insides want to melt. How did he do that?

She sighed heavily, and without looking up at him, knowing it would break her concentration, conceded through gritted teeth, "Yes Jareth, I probably would. But we both know that-"

"I can reorder time," he finished bluntly.

If she hadn't thought it impossible, she could have sworn that she _felt_ the self-satisfied grin spread across his face, satisfaction radiating off his form behind her. She hadn't thought of that one. She felt his warm, gloved hands settle onto her shoulders, grasping her firmly but gently, and she shivered at his touch.

"We have all the time in the world, Sarah."

She turned around in her chair to face him, narrowing her eyes and trying desperately to remain in control of the situation. "Now_ that_ is not fair," she replied, determined to sound resolute.

"Perhaps not," he began mischievously, his hands massaging her shoulders and working his way down her arms. "But if something isn't fair, though still works in your favor, you'd best not complain, precious." He brought his lips to her neck and bit down gently, causing Sarah to moan softly as she felt his cool breath on her skin.

"Mm, alright," she relented. "But if I don't get to work on time tomorrow-"

"You will," he stated rather harshly as he stood up straight and spun her chair around to face him. His face lit up with childish delight as he lifted her from the chair by her hands and drew her to him.

"Wait, I'm not-" Sarah started as she looked down at her business clothes that were disheveled from her long day at work and sitting hunched over at her desk.

"You look lovely, Sarah," Jareth interrupted.

"For having 'all the time in the world,' you certainly seem like you're in a rush," Sarah noted suspiciously. But the creative, younger, fairy tale-loving part of Sarah was giving in to his impish giddiness and wry smile. She shook her head. "You never fail to confound me, Jareth."

"I could say the same, Sarah dearest," he chuckled softly, pulling her against him. "Hold on tight."

Having done this a few times now, Sarah grabbed onto the sleeves of Jareth's shirt, wincing that it would probably wrinkle. But before her mind could wander further concerning the creases in the Goblin King's clothing, she felt the tell-tale compression sensation as her ears popped and they were transported to the Underground.

But when Sarah's head stopped spinning and she slowly opened her eyes, she saw something she certainly had not expected. Never once loosening her grip on Jareth's strong arms, her eyes widened as she took in the scene around her.

They were standing in what seemed to be a ballroom, although it differed drastically from the ballroom of her dream so many years ago. Gone were the tatters and dilapidation of the Goblin Kingdom she had now come to realize were a thing of the past. Rich tapestries hung from its walls, and liquid moonlight bathed the polished wood floor. The most striking differentiation between her memories and this, however, was that they were completely alone. Sarah caught herself when she met Jareth's eyes, that had apparently been watching her reaction the entire time, and quickly snapped her jaw shut.

"I'm flattered that you seem to like it Sarah, but if you don't loosen your grip on my arms, you may very well ruin my plans for the evening." He smirked at her in the moonlight.

She jerked back at his words. Ruin _what_ plans? 'Wouldn't _you_ like to know,' her inner voice answered her unspoken question. She glared at Jareth in the dim light flooding in from the glass windows. She instantly regretted opening her mouth, as her wavering tone made it obvious that she had been contemplating his answer. "So are we just going to stand here in the dark staring at each other or what?"

He let out a bark of laughter that reverberated around the spacious room, nearly making Sarah flinch at its suddenness. "I wasn't planning on it, but I would be more than happy to take you up on that offer." He lowered the pitch of his voice as he stepped closer to her, shoes clicking on the smooth floor, his frame now so close that it blocked out all light from view. "Although, should staring at each other become dull..." He flashed his teeth in a wicked grin, only to be met with Sarah defensively crossing her arms across her chest.

"Forget I said anything," she retorted, betraying her inner thoughts. Of course, she would have preferred to do something more than simply stare at each other in the dark, but she wasn't about to admit that to Jareth. As well as they might have been getting along, there was still a part of Sarah that couldn't stand to lose, even if the consequences for losing weren't necessarily against her own wishes.

Jareth responded with a smirk, but was silent as he stepped back and bowed deeply, extending his arm toward her. She stared blankly, unsure of what he was offering.

"Must I ask, Sarah?" he said, lowering his pitch, all traces of jest now absent from his voice.

Warily, she extended her own arm and placed her hand in his. As she did so, he pulled her almost roughly into an embrace.

"Jareth, what-"

He shushed her as he began to move slowly across the dance floor. "Just relax."

Music started to play from an unknown source, and memories of an earlier time and a similar situation came flooding back to Sarah. But this time, there was no one to save, no time constraints. Gone were the excessive and gaudy decorations, the white dress, the glitter in her hair. This was real. And they were completely alone. But something about it just seemed too good to be true; too planned, too perfect. Sarah looked up at Jareth and bit her lip before looking away again.

Suddenly, he stopped, and took her chin in his gloved hand. He raised her face to his, although she still refused to make eye contact. "What's wrong?" It was almost a whisper, and she could hear the sincerity and nervousness in his voice. A nervous Goblin King? That was certainly new.

"N-nothing," she started hastily. "It's just..." She almost painfully pulled herself away from his arms, wrapping her own around herself to replace the lost warmth. When she didn't finish her sentence, he spoke.

"I see." His voice suddenly seemed cold as he turned from her slightly.

At this, she chanced a glance up at him, only to meet his eyes with hers before quickly returning her gaze to the polished floor.

"Perhaps this would be more to your liking."

Sarah felt a burst of cold wind, causing her to look up into the eyes of a Jareth dressed in gray breeches and a leather jacket, reminiscent of the outfit he had worn during their meeting in the tunnels of the Labyrinth. She could only stare, her lips moving without forming words.

"Or perhaps this?" He flourished his hand again and with another blast of cold air his outfit changed to the daunting black armor he had donned during their first encounter. His golden locks became unruly, his arms now crossed over his chest. His face distorted into one of intimidation, then frustration as he took another step towards Sarah. "Or perhaps," he added, emphasizing the final syllable, "you might prefer-"

"Stop!" Sarah protested, finding the confidence to meet his icy gaze. She pressed her palms against his black chest plate, not once looking away.

He clenched his jaw at her reaction, but slowly began to relax under her gaze. He sighed heavily, contrasting with his menacing demeanor. "Sarah, I need you to be honest with me." He looked into her eyes and placed his hands softly on her shoulders. "I'm not sure what it is you want from me."

_"Everything that you wanted I have done."_

"Jareth, I..." It was her turn to sigh now. "I just want you to be _you_. I don't want the Goblin King of my childhood fantasies." She replaced her palms that were resting on his chest with just a finger, and looked up into his melted gaze. "I want to know _you_." He opened his mouth to object, but she continued. "The good..._and_ the bad." She smiled as she watched him absorb what she was saying.

"Sarah..." he removed his hands from her shoulders and took a step back.

"I don't want any more tricks, Jareth." She continued. "And as hard as it may be for you to believe after everything we've been through together...I _do_ want to get to know you better. I want to know the man who has influenced my life, the man who..." she trailed off, unsure about how to express her feelings. But before she could, she felt him grab her hand tightly.

"Can I show you something?" he asked abruptly.

Taken aback by his sudden change in attitude, Sarah nodded jerkily. "Um, okay..." And before she could ask any questions, she found herself again pressed against Jareth's chest, experiencing the pressurized teleportation whose sensation she had still not grown completely accustomed to.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in darkness, absent from Jareth's warm embrace. Unable to see anything, Sarah began to panic. "Jareth?" she asked, her voice absorbed by the silence. A candle light flickered, and relief flooded through her as Jareth's face was illuminated in the darkness. He seemed to again be wearing his clothes from the aboveground, his face uncharacteristically grave.

"Where are we?" Sarah asked in a whisper, glancing around her for another presence.

"We are quite alone," he responded as if he could sense her fears.

Light from candles along what appeared to be stone walls began to flicker and brighten the room, highlighting what could only be described as old ruins of a stone building. Sarah gasped as realization dawned. They were standing in the destroyed Escher room. Everything was exactly how it had been on the day she had spoken those fateful words, changing both of their paths forever.

"I couldn't bring myself to return here for many years," Jareth reflected, disrupting the silence. Sarah jumped when she realized he was now standing quite close to her. "I'm ashamed to say it, but it was a weakness of mine for a very long time." He didn't go into detail, which she was grateful for. She had no desire to relive that scene any more than he did.

"That's...understandable," she managed, uncertain of how to respond to the situation.

"When I finally did come here," he continued as if he hadn't heard her, "I came to rid myself of the weight on my heart. I came in order to put my memory of you to rest, once and for all." His eyes focused on the wall opposite them, refusing to look in her direction. "For some reason, I couldn't imagine never seeing you again...couldn't imagine living without you. I was...desperate, you might say, to rid myself of these feelings." He shrugged a bit, his tone lightening. "Needless to say it didn't exactly work."

Sarah shifted her weight uneasily from leg to leg. She found listening to this confession highly uncomfortable, particularly because she was the cause of it. As much as she appreciated this new, honest side of Jareth, it made her uneasy.

"So I found myself here, in this room." He motioned with his arms to the area around them. "I had no direction. I felt lost, for probably the first time in my very long life."

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but he noticed and held up a hand to stop her.

"But then," he smiled, "I paused for a moment."

They were suddenly submerged into pitch blackness, and Sarah's thoughts couldn't help but flash back to the similar situation in her apartment not months ago.

"Sarah, look."

"If I can't see anything, how am I supposed to-" She felt two strong hands rest on her shoulders, and she realized that Jareth had positioned himself in front of her.

"Look _up_."

And as she did, Sarah gasped. Above them, through the ruins and the darkness of the Escher room, were stars. Bright stars, both large and small, that formed a blanket over a seemingly endless sky. And not just one moon but several made their way across the night sky at different speeds, the glowing orbs growing closer and farther apart as she watched in amazement. Bending galaxies seemed so close that Sarah almost felt that she could reach up and touch them, their swirling colors filling the night sky.

"It's..." there were no words that she knew to describe the exquisite beauty that she was gazing upon. Any and everything that she had ever seen paled in comparison.

"I know," Jareth whispered. She had almost forgotten he was there. "And I realized, even with all of my status and all of my magic, how helpless I truly was in the grand scheme of things. I had tried to alter fate, and in doing so, believed that I had ruined my chances of ever seeing you again, let alone receiving a second opportunity to build a relationship with you."

Sarah tore her gaze from the sky and forced herself to look at Jareth. "But-"

"And then I received the summons that I thought would never come." He smiled at her, but an inner pain was reflected in his eyes. "Don't you see, Sarah? I had given up; I had moved on. I had to move on. And then, when I least expected it..." he motioned at her, and she understood.

She smiled back at him genuinely. She returned her gaze to the sky. "You _can_ alter fate," she said slowly. "But it always has a way of coming back to you, as if it truly knows what your heart desires."

_"I move the stars for no one."_

"Sarah." His voice was barely a whisper, but she returned her gaze to him, listening attentively.

"Jareth?"

She suddenly found himself wrapped tightly in his arms, not caring one bit that he might have been holding her a little too tightly for her to breathe properly. He buried her face into her neck, and she melted in his embrace. His long fingers tightened their grip on her sides, pressing her body against his and creating feelings and reactions within her that she didn't feel she could control for much longer.

His lips were on hers, and she was overwhelmed by the emotions she felt through the display of passion. Desperation, loneliness, tenderness, ecstasy. His hands pulled her hips closer to his as he ran them down her torso, causing her to gasp as they broke apart, breathless.

"Sarah," he rasped as he ran his fingers through her long dark hair.

The sensation caused Sarah's head to fall back, the rest of her still pressed against the man who was now doing unspeakably wonderful things to her neck and to the rest of her body. "Jareth," she whispered.

He slowly sank to the stone floor, bringing her with him while placing kisses along her collarbone. He pulled off his gloves one at a time with his teeth, his hands never completely leaving the woman before him. "Stay with me, Sarah," he spoke softly, his words not a question.

She didn't answer immediately, her head still swimming from all of the things his hands were doing to her, and instead stifled a moan.

"I am certain I am not the only one who feels the pull of the fates between us," he continued, his breathing becoming heavy. He looked down at her, limbs and hair splayed on the tile floor where she had rejected him not a decade prior. "_Be_ with me, Sarah."

Her entire being was begging for emotional and physical release. She was in love with Jareth, fate or no. And she knew in her heart that no matter where life took her-took _them_-she would only be truly satisfied if she had him by her side. If that was made a constant, she was confident that everything would work itself out from there. She reached up and tangled her fingers in his long, platinum hair and pulled his face toward her, eyes darkening. "Damn the fates."

That was the only signal he needed. He smirked seductively at her, and managed to say, "Now that's the Sarah I know," before being consumed by both her passion and his own.

And there they lay, expressing their love for one another in what once was a place of sorrow and defeat, forever to be known as the place where dreams were fragmented and the foundations of reality, love, and understanding were built.

_**The End**_

* * *

><p><em><strong><strong>_**A/N:**

**First comes the necessary apology that it took me 4 months get this epilogue up. Did you all forget about me? I moved to Japan back in September and once the semester started, well... Also, adapting to a new lifestyle, culture, school, and language are not exactly conducive to writing, particularly in English (as I spend the majority of my time using Japanese). I hope the quality of my English writing has not worsened... But I could make excuses all day. The fact is, my first fan fiction has officially come to an end. Thank you all so much for supporting me through this process, and thank you for your kind comments and reviews. As any writer knows, reviews are what keep you going, and believe me when I say that I read and take to heart every one of them.**

**That said, over these past months I have been brainstorming ideas for new Labyrinth fics that I am really excited about. While speaking Japanese might not help my English writing ability, traveling around Japan is inspiration material like nothing else! It's truly a beautiful country. I have the rest of January off and the entirety of March off school as well, and I plan to do some major outlining and writing for stories that I feel are more in depth now that I've tested the waters and my writing ability with this one. Thank you again everyone, and please let me know what you think of the story as a whole and what I might be able to do in order to improve my writing in the future. Hope you enjoyed! ;)**


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